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up vote 1 down vote favorite

i need some assistance with properly generating JSON. I almost have it, but I need to have each category and its related item in its own array. I have multiple categories each with many items under them. My JSON looks good, i just need the categories as an array along with its items. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Here is my code:

$channel ['items']['post']['categories'][$category_name]['details'][] = array(
    'title' => $title,
    'price' => $price,
    'date_time' => $date_time,
    'description' => $description,

   );
}   
$channels = array($channel);
$json = json_encode($channel);
header('Content-type: application/json');
echo $json;

My JSON looks like this currently:

{
"items": { /// THIS IS MEANT TO ORGANIZE UNDER ITEMS
    "post": { ///THIS IS PROBABLY UNNECESSARY, I JUST  HAVEN'T REMOVED IT.
        "categories": {
            "Baby": { ///I HAVE MANY MANY CATEGORIES
                "details": [ ///I HAVE MANY MANY ITEMS UNDER EACH CATEGORY
                    {
                        "title": "trying with category id again",
                        "price": "3344.55",
                        "date_time": "2013-11-11 17:33:49",
                        "description": "Descriptor sb ",
                        "category_id": "3",
                    },

                ]

But I want it to look like this:

{
"items": {
        "categories": [{ /// NEED THE BRACKET HERE
            "Baby": {
                "details": [
                    {
                        "title": "trying with category id again",
                        "price": "3344.55",
                        "date_time": "2013-11-11 17:33:49",
                        "description": "Descriptor sb ",
                    },
                    {
                        "title": "what the",
                        "price": "44444.66",
                        "date_time": "2013-11-18 20:15:58",
                        "description": "Blah blah",
                    },
                ]
            },
            "Baby Stuff": {
                "details": [
                    {
                        "title": "putting in title",
                        "price": "3000.99",
                        "date_time": "2013-11-11 17:42:15",
                        "description": "Blah blah blah",
                    },
                    {
                        "title": "adding another listing",
                        "price": "400000.99",
                        "date_time": "2013-11-17 22:37:02",
                        "description": "Blah blah blah",
                    },


                ]
            },
            "More Baby Stuff": {
                "details": [
                    {
                        "title": "does this work",
                        "price": "4000.77",
                        "date_time": "2013-11-18 19:59:49",
                        "description": "Description ",
                    },
                    {
share|improve this question
    
While what you are looking to do is easily achieved by going with suggested answer by @maček below. I still seems odd the way you have your data structured. For example, at the root levels you have a property called "items" (plural) which seems to me like it would have an array for value rather than a nested object called 'post'. Similarly, you can have an arrary within categories, but why would you than have a property in one of those elements named Baby rather than having that object have a property name like category name => 'baby'. It would seem like an odd structure for accessing –  Mike Brant Nov 26 '13 at 23:26
    
You are correct about post. it is probably unncessary and i will have it removed. But for now, its like this because i have many categories, each with many items under them. I need to build the JSON in a relational way by category and with all the items under its category. –  mreynol Nov 26 '13 at 23:29
    
To continue my comment... I think it would help you if you think in terms of arrays and objects, not just associative arrays as an associative array gets converted to an object via JSON anyway. What should be the relation of one to the other? Ask yourself at each node in your structure whether the next leaf should be an array or an object. For example, starting at the top, does items CONTAIN MANY objects underneath it (in which case array would be applicable) or does it really contain a single item (in which case an object would be appropriate). Please add comments on your data structure. –  Mike Brant Nov 26 '13 at 23:29
    
I added comments to help. –  mreynol Nov 26 '13 at 23:32
    
So what data structure do you actually envision? Root node HAS MANY categories? Categories have both category metadata as well as products in the category? –  Mike Brant Nov 26 '13 at 23:32

2 Answers 2

up vote 2 down vote

Add another [] after ['categories'] and that should do the trick

$channel ['items']['post']['categories'][][$category_name]['details'][] = array( // ...

$channel ['items']['post']['categories'][]['Baby']['details'][] = array(
    'title' => 'trying with category id again',
    'price' => 3344.55,
    'date_time' => '2013-11-11 17:33:49',
    'description' => 'Descriptor sb',

   );

$channels = array($channel);
$json = json_encode($channel);
echo $json;

Output

{
    "items": {
        "post": {
            "categories": [
                {
                    "Baby": {
                        "details": [
                            {
                                "title": "trying with category id again",
                                "price": 3344.55,
                                "date_time": "2013-11-11 17:33:49",
                                "description": "Descriptor sb"
                            }
                        ]
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

See it working here on ideone

share|improve this answer
    
i probably didn't ask my question correctly. :). I made that change but it is repeating each category name for each item details with that category name. I need it more relational. I have 14 categories...each with several item details under each category. I need the category to only show once with each of the items under it. Does that make sense? –  mreynol Nov 26 '13 at 23:26
up vote 1 down vote

Based on comments and edits to OP, perhaps you should be looking at a data structure like this:

{
  "categories":
    [
      {
        "category_name": "Baby",
        ... [Other category metadata],
        "category_items":
           [
             {
               "item_name": "Item Name",
               ... [Other item information]
             },
             { [next item] },
             ...
           ]
      },
      { [ next category ] },
      ...
   ]
}

This means one might build this object in similar manner to the following (assuming for example you are building this from DB query):

$channel = new stdClass();
$channel->categories = array();

LOOP for categories as $category
    $category = new stdClass();
    $category->category_name = 'some value';
    $category->some_other_category_metadata = 'some other value';
    $category->category_items = array();
    INNER LOOP on items in category as $item
        $item = new stdClass();
        $item->item_name = 'item name';
        $item->some_other_item_data = 'data';
        $category->category_items[] = $item;
    END INNER LOOP
    $channel->categories[] = $category;
END OUTER LOOP

json_encode($channel);
share|improve this answer
    
I updated my post above with more JSON to better illustrate what i'm trying to get. I'm not entirely following you on the code you pasted. As you can see, i have multiple categories. Each category with multiple items in the category. i believe i just need to have each category and related items in their own array. –  mreynol Nov 27 '13 at 1:19

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