Json_encode, json_decode and UTF8

Question

All,

I make a JSON request to a web server using PHP and it returns me a JSON response in a variable. The JSON response will have lots of keys and values. The JSON response I get from the server has special characters in it. So, I use the following statement to convert it to UTF8,decode the JSON and use it as an array to display to the UI.

$response = json_decode(utf8_encode($jsonresponse));

Now, I have to pass the same value to the server in a JSON request to do some stuff. However, when I pass

$jsonrequest = json_encode(utf8_encode($request));

to the server, it fails.

The following code succeeds in reading special characters and displaying it to the UI. But fails if I have to pass the utf8_encode value to the server.

The current whole roundtrip code is as under:

$requestdata  = json_encode($request);
$jsonresponse = //Do something to get from server;
$response = json_decode(utf8_encode($jsonresponse));

How can I modify it such that I pass the exact value as to what I receieved from the json response from the server?

Answer 1

The JSON response I get from the server has special characters in it. So, I use the following statement to convert it to UTF8,decode the JSON and use it as an array to display to the UI.

JSON data already comes encoded in UTF-8. You shouldn't convert it to UTF-8 again; you'll corrupt the data.

Instead of this:

$response = json_decode(utf8_encode($jsonresponse));

You should have this:

$response = json_decode($jsonresponse); //already UTF-8!