Parsing error with JSON

It may be easier to work on this problem in pieces.  Here is what you need to know about MySQL / MySQLi conversion (why it had to happen, what you have to do to convert old programs for modern standards, etc...
http://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/11177/PHP-MySQL-Deprecated-as-of-PHP-5-5-0.html

Here is advice from MySQL about MySqLND:
https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/php-mysqlnd/

My recommendation would be to get the MySQLi extension working and verified with a simple code example (almost any connection script shown in the article will be helpful to verify the installation).  Then come back to the issue about JSON.

Conceptually, JSON is just like XML - it's a formatted transport mechanism for data exchange between applications.  JSON turns complex data structures into character strings that can be send back and forth over APIs, etc.  In PHP it has some rudimentary error message capabilities, as shown in this code snippet.  If JSON is really the problem (incorrect formatting or truncated string) this may help tease out the errors.  Here is the URL:
http://iconoun.com/demo/json_decode_show_errors.php

Here is the PHP code, including a hard-wired JSON string:

<?php // demo/json_decode_show_errors.php
/**
 * JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation
 * http://json.org/
 *
 * JSON support in PHP does not have very good error handling
 *
 * JSON strings are all UTF-8
 * http://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/11880/Unicode-PHP-and-Character-Collisions.html
 *
 * PHP man page references
 * http://php.net/manual/en/json.constants.php
 * http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php
 * http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-encode.php
 * http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-last-error.php
 * http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-last-error-msg.php
 */
error_reporting(E_ALL);
echo '<pre>';

// SEE TEST DATA AT http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Scripting/JavaScript/Q_28523915.html#a40339939
$jso = <<<EOD
{"id":"tag:search.twitter.com,2005:389903668427763712","objectType":"activity","actor":{"objectType":"person","id":"id:twitter.com:91239297","link":"http://www.twitter.com/OGkush103","displayName":"WalkingLick74","postedTime":"2009-11-20T01:21:39.000Z","image":"https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000593715086/755411d8bdc495472c2d7ed50e319582_normal.jpeg","summary":"Self-Made, Self Paid..... I always had the mind to get it like a man, head first bout my younging Ean! #YOLO","links":[{"href":null,"rel":"me"}],"friendsCount":468,"followersCount":677,"listedCount":0,"statusesCount":25504,"twitterTimeZone":"Alaska","verified":false,"utcOffset":"-28800","preferredUsername":"OGkush103","languages":["en"],"location":{"objectType":"place","displayName":"Boston George Crib"},"favoritesCount":26},"verb":"post","postedTime":"2013-10-15T00:00:53.000Z","generator":{"displayName":"Twitter for iPhone","link":"http://twitter.com/download/iphone"},"provider":{"objectType":"service","displayName":"Twitter","link":"http://www.twitter.com"},"link":"http://twitter.com/OGkush103/statuses/389903668427763712","body":"You a killer you on twitter, You'n do NO talking","object":{"objectType":"note","id":"object:search.twitter.com,2005:389903668427763712","summary":"You a killer you on twitter, You'n do NO talking","link":"http://twitter.com/OGkush103/statuses/389903668427763712","postedTime":"2013-10-15T00:00:53.000Z"},"favoritesCount":0,"location":{"objectType":"place","displayName":"Mississippi, US","name":"Mississippi","country_code":"United States","twitter_country_code":"US","link":"https://api.twitter.com/1.1/geo/id/43d2418301bf1a49.json","geo":{"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-91.65500899999999,30.146096],[-91.65500899999999,34.996099],[-88.097888,34.996099],[-88.097888,30.146096]]]}},"geo":{"type":"Point","coordinates":[31.99686058,-88.72688823]},"twitter_entities":{"hashtags":[],"symbols":[],"urls":[],"user_mentions":[]},"twitter_filter_level":"medium","twitter_lang":"en","retweetCount":0,"gnip":{"matching_rules":[{"tag":null}],"language":{"value":"en"}}}
EOD;

// IF DECODING SUCCEEDS
$obj = json_decode($jso);
if ($obj)
{
    // SHOW SOME PARTS OF THE OBJECT
    $x = $obj->objectType;
    $y = $obj->actor->displayName;
    echo PHP_EOL . "$x $y" . PHP_EOL;

    // ACTIVATE THIS TO SHOW THE ENTIRE OBJECT
    // var_dump($obj);
}

// IF DECODING FAILS?
if (!$obj) echo json_last_error_message();

function json_last_error_message()
{
    static $errors = array
    ( JSON_ERROR_NONE           => null
    , JSON_ERROR_DEPTH          => 'Maximum stack depth exceeded'
    , JSON_ERROR_STATE_MISMATCH => 'Underflow or the modes mismatch'
    , JSON_ERROR_CTRL_CHAR      => 'Unexpected control character found'
    , JSON_ERROR_SYNTAX         => 'Syntax error, malformed JSON'
    , JSON_ERROR_UTF8           => 'Malformed UTF-8 characters, possibly incorrectly encoded'
    )
    ;
    // ADD THESE AT PHP 5.5+ OR USE json_last_error_msg()
    if (defined('JSON_ERROR_RECURSION'))        $errors[JSON_ERROR_RECURSION]        = 'One or more recursive references in the value to be encoded';
    if (defined('JSON_ERROR_INF_OR_NAN'))       $errors[JSON_ERROR_INF_OR_NAN]       = 'One or more NAN or INF values in the value to be encoded';
    if (defined('JSON_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_TYPE')) $errors[JSON_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_TYPE] = 'A value of a type that cannot be encoded was given';

    $error = json_last_error();

    return array_key_exists($error, $errors)
    ? $errors[$error]
    : "Unknown error ({$error})"
    ;
}

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