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Ashraf Hassanein

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file_get_contents is returning back a corrupted characters from facbook feed.

I have the following PHP code which is working fine, but all of the sudden it does not work:
<?php
 header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
$page_id = 'cnninternational';
$access_token = 'xxxxxxx';
//Get the JSON
$json_object = file_get_contents('https://graph.facebook.com/'.$page_id.'/posts?access_token='.$access_token.'&format=json');
//Interpret data
$fbdata = json_decode($json_object);
?>

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I started to trace and I found that when I var_dump($json_object) I am getting something like this:

       ‚è5×À4#_rß.²¹ÏÀû-«‹hÎ
M´‹”VÎuK6W•Ð
po6¥üv¢p+¡¿S …QáîÀ&âcÛ6:­„6[¡LÖKØãv¡[f-WFNÅ1Y2+¡]t[0°§5„>Nñ¿À;]¤zŽ‰®›T\¿Ù:K¿Å:ÐçÚd»¸®Þ:sŠ‘Œ‘Ì- eP“tá¿åì" õÖj6³Óf¿¿/¿”ÌÇU¿ÉDGC§¦ ûµyÚE÷­ÑÍ6½.òpß
ÊøõNmY—Vívëþ\ÍC¹ƒpäSl
ºœ¯¶*¿\;&çûíÁ¤¿Ç4É´‚Ð×÷¿·ßœ”Á0œ¿Î¿^aé…6¾¶èU¯ ¿T.¾ªŸò-Ïjd·øÏ*»å`  ¿Wèt„¿²­ÝUåë÷S©H‡[Ì4hü•:³¿¦JK:eM]’®2;é É
#”^® &@¿W0½¬'ØÇ3¿y·MicŠé·"[£%~)—I±ˆ¸¡¼8‹\ò5Fu Ý
ÝP‰ÀLö|Zë¿ å5¡áòVI`œc@ ‘L¬";§tÍag?¶¨z‡p˜½˜‘o«°²W [ ’É_Á·‘Û@‹±S%®–o‚Ï?úÆx¥j¿‡â•i=ç­tZ™n›·rCe)·“k¬K‘À¥¡Ó¿¨+ÆwIÕœ|·.Ç5
"_m¿aC¶C2* «—4ð+áÈÃÖmÛÔz1 ‘ñ¤ù’-€±\ÅG€¨f¨¼êAN§ñ¢ÛYî=c,ú$w¿ú[ø å€æà‚ȪXÏj£©{¤%¢
ÀUØ]hç‰Ë0Ò¿B\19P„1{)º%'@_¸ñ¿Ïo­=:®ìgx »Ì
                                                                                                                                                                                
¿¹ '¾z
ýÃøwƒ ¿
œ6U²ó æüƒT¡ï…8 ¿ÜÛ&ˆÛú_èâÃî0ƒ¨u}nÊóU{wß`—²ƒØÍñWÛmÛùÉP %"?’óI¿Á¼–f³:S¤8¾é–¶)¿@F¯¿€bÃDJK+JA›0ß™L
À®Ž   ÔT¢®1q¡aæ–@ù)¦>$Àñôa6E‚2¯.ÁbË>4þöS‰³ålûA:•´Ãîñÿ÷#“³%ãèeòPÂæ±Ó«¾å0dÊ
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                
Ñ.€Î@G‚
} ðMWŒ#õx.Ò 3©¥\ Q
£¿ 0Âöú·8ÿðo¼¨»«hžÙj¬v^‹»mo¬ÚâX—n"ÿ™[,óC¼À
r5q:/T—«*AØx#U/„åP>|žqY¼ztŒbÈê_Ä¿øÜCIþù§ëãë­ç…ýÖ1ža%pÛæ¿_¿_ÜaוÿLàU2⯨ä—}I<‘Üôƒªlt¿GöÇ_‹¤q¿>ê}<½8~+Fë6¯aÁng†žÔC^1 ÌNÙYå):PI,®žä²¾ê
”ä ¿Ùs@É ¹\cQÿ1Jíu(zyC
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¼ZøÿQ3—¿.ø.HkÂzŸóÚ@sØ¿q¡wQw4å²Cæó©¶59ë*“i^G—xÁ†_çþœ~Cï¢Ýw™ãóÌs9kT~þÎ,½
ºÜo@uLË6]¿ë8¯ÚÑS
í8uRÔT%ëq¿¤ù&µ¿¿Jä©Ìhw"Wy?“úkmƒTÃç
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                
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÷¤˜Î'Y´$ï)&ƒ@Ÿ>-!„j%ºŸ:f?Ëå,ÒÖ6iº´XkË(Á)¶Rn¤¥

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However when I access the URL:
https://graph.facebook.com/cnninternational/posts?access_token=xxxxx&format=json

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I get something like this

{
   "data": [
      {
         "id": "18793419640_246085255559206",
         "from": {
            "category": "Tv network",
            "name": "CNN International",
            "id": "18793419640"
         },
         "message": "If you\u2019re afraid of heights, you might want to avoid stepping into this \u201cvoid\u201d at the top of the French Alps: http://cnn.it/1kzMekv",
         "picture": "http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQB_ttzD_Vr9LPOB&w=154&h=154&url=http\u00253A\u00252F\u00252Fi2.cdn.turner.com\u00252Fcnn\u00252Fdam\u00252Fassets\u00252F131225115813-void-tease-story-top.jpg",
         "link": "http://cnn.it/1kzMekv",
         "name": "The eighth wonder of the world? 'Step into The Void'",
         "caption": "edition.cnn.com",
         "description": "If you're scared of heights, then this is not for you.",
         "icon": "http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yq/r/SC2ZmEkfI-X.png",
         "privacy": {
            "value": ""
         },
         "type": "link",
         "status_type": "shared_story",
         "created_time": "2014-01-14T15:09:29+0000",
         "updated_time": "2014-01-14T15:22:39+0000",
         "shares": {
            "count": 15
         },
         "likes": {
            "data": [
               {
                  "id": "100000320486234",
                  "name": "Cris Pereira"
               },
               {
                  "id": "1133601526",
                  "name": "Diego Hernandez"
               },
               {
                  "id": "100004287573273",
                  "name": "Nawa Nazeer"
               },

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  I have no idea what went wrong the code was working perfectly and all of the sudden it started to do so.
Avatar of Ray Paseur
Ray Paseur
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Do you get the same garbled result when you use cURL instead of file_get_contents()?
Avatar of Gary
Possibly/probably by the looks of it it is being gzipped by the server.

Not something I would have come across before but maybe this will help
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.gzdecode.php#106397

Of course you could go with the curl option ^^^^^^
Avatar of Ashraf Hassanein
Ashraf Hassanein

ASKER

Same corrupted output with Curl, here is my code:
<?php
$page_id = 'cnninternational';
$access_token = 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx';
$feed = 'https://graph.facebook.com/'.$page_id.'/posts?access_token='.$access_token.'&format=json';
   $headers = array(
               "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset: UTF-8"
            );
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $feed);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    $putput = curl_exec($ch);
                                                                                                                                                                                
    curl_close($ch);
var_dump($output);
?>

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The second assumption if the server is gzipped, then how of the sudden is doing so?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Ray Paseur
Ray Paseur
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SOLUTION
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Now it worked, and when I removed the
curl_setopt( $curl, CURLOPT_ENCODING,       'gzip,deflate'  );

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From the code I got a corrupted output again so it looks it is something related to gzip as cathal mentioned, but now can I change the coding of file_get_contents?
Cathal now I am getting:


PHP Fatal error:  Call to undefined function gzdecode()


Is there a place to enable it in  php.ini?
PHP was not compiled with it then
I haven't used this but it seems to get around the problem and let you use the 'function'
http://include-once.org/p/upgradephp/
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The gzdecode retrieved the text but as a text stream, not as a json
I am trying the curl and it is working
I do not what happened and all of the sudden I got back gzip format that is really annoying
Thanks for all for the great support