[basex-talk] JSON output in PHP client

[Paul Swennenhuis]

I've been playing a bit with BaseX the last couple of days - and very 
excited about the product while doing so - but now I am having problems 
outputting JSON from a PHP script.

I have this XQuery:
declare option output:method "json";
declare option output:json "format=jsonml";
<json type="object">
{
for $user in 
collection("saveresult")//user[_id="1f2cda8f-a18a-44ba-8d17-73626d472306"]
return
<testResults>
  <testId>{$user/test/_id}</testId>
  <grade>{$user/user_info/user_grade}</grade>
  </testResults>
}
</json>

In the BaseX GUI this yields:

["json", {"type":"object"},
  ["testResults",
    ["testId",
      ["_id",
        "Bio-1"]],
    ["grade",
      ["user_grade",
        "7"]]],
  ["testResults",
    ["testId",
      ["_id",
        "Bio-2"]],
    ["grade",
      ["user_grade",
        "1"]]]]

Which is what I expected after reading about the JSONML format. (Not too 
happy with that format, but that's another story).

Running exactly the same XQuery form within a PHP script however yields 
this:

<json  type="object">
  <testResults>
    <testId>
      <_id>Bio-1</_id>
    </testId>
    <grade>
      <user_grade>7</user_grade>
    </grade>
  </testResults>
  <testResults>
    <testId>
      <_id>Bio-2</_id>
    </testId>
    <grade>
      <user_grade>1</user_grade>
    </grade>
  </testResults>
</json>


(script is attached; note that the $ signs have been escaped there so 
that PHP will not try to evaluate them)

In other words, the result is being output as XML with an enclosing 
<json> root tag, not as JSON.

What is happening here? And how can I have BaseX return JSON from PHP?

Paul Swennenhuis




<?php
/*
 * This example shows how queries can be executed in an iterative manner.
 * Documentation: http://basex.org/api
 *
 * (C) BaseX Team 2005-11, BSD License
 */
include("BaseXClient.php");


 
try {
  // create session
  $session = new Session("localhost", 1984, "admin", "a33445");
   
  try {
    // create query instance
  
    // make sure to escape $ signs!
 $input = <<<XQ
declare option output:json "format=jsonml";
<json type="object">
{
for \$user in 
collection("saveresult")//user[_id="1f2cda8f-a18a-44ba-8d17-73626d472306"]
return

<testResult>
  <testId>{\$user/test/_id}</testId>
  <grade>{\$user/user_info/user_grade}</grade>
  </testResult>
}
</json>

 
XQ;
//print $input;

    $query = $session->query($input);
 
    // bind variable
    //$query->bind("$name", "number");
 
 
    print $query->execute()."\n";
   
 
    // close query instance
    $query->close();
 
  } catch (Exception $e) {
    // print exception
    print $e->getMessage();
  }
 
  // close session
  $session->close();
 
} catch (Exception $e) {
  // print exception
  print $e->getMessage();
}
?>