Magento1.8 - Restapi Custom Module - Return variable formatting issue

Question

This is my first post so please let me know if I missed sharing any detail on my problem.

I have below files ready in Magento kept in app/code/community:

A. Autogen > Restapi > etc > api2.xml

B. Autogen > Restapi > etc > config.xml

C. Autogen > Restapi > Model > Api2 > Order.php

D. Autogen > Restapi > Model > Api2 > Order > Rest > Admin > V1.php

Below is the part of code written in V1.php:

protected function _retrieveCollection() {
    $return_variable = array();
    $page = $this->getRequest()->getParam('page');
    $limit = $this->getRequest()->getParam('limit');

    $collection = Mage::getModel('sales/order')->getCollection()
                                                ->setCurPage($page)
                                                ->setPageSize($limit);

    $return_variable['order_count'] = $collection->getSize();
    $order_counter = 0;
    foreach ($collection as $order) {
        $return_variable['order'][$order_counter]['order_id'] = $order->getId();
        $return_variable['order'][$order_counter]['increment_id'] = $order->getIncrementId();

        $order_counter = $order_counter + 1;
    }

    return json_encode($return_variable);   //I will refer this line again
}

When I hit restapi with Restclient, I get below output which is not fit for json_decode:

"{\"order_count\":2050,\"order\":[{\"order_id\":\"2282\",\"increment_id\":\"100003584\"},{\"order_id\":\"2281\",\"increment_id\":\"100003583\"},{\"order_id\":\"2280\",\"increment_id\":\"100003582\"},{\"order_id\":\"2279\",\"increment_id\":\"100003581\"},{\"order_id\":\"2278\",\"increment_id\":\"100003579\"},{\"order_id\":\"2277\",\"increment_id\":\"100003578\"},{\"order_id\":\"2276\",\"increment_id\":\"100003577\"},{\"order_id\":\"2275\",\"increment_id\":\"100003576\"},{\"order_id\":\"2274\",\"increment_id\":\"100003575\"},{\"order_id\":\"2273\",\"increment_id\":\"100003574\"},{\"order_id\":\"2272\",\"increment_id\":\"100003573\"},{\"order_id\":\"2271\",\"increment_id\":\"100003572\"},{\"order_id\":\"2270\",\"increment_id\":\"100003571\"},{\"order_id\":\"2269\",\"increment_id\":\"100003570\"},{\"order_id\":\"2268\",\"increment_id\":\"100003569\"},{\"order_id\":\"2267\",\"increment_id\":\"100003568\"},{\"order_id\":\"2265\",\"increment_id\":\"100003565\"},{\"order_id\":\"2264\",\"increment_id\":\"100003564\"},{\"order_id\":\"2263\",\"increment_id\":\"100003563\"},{\"order_id\":\"2262\",\"increment_id\":\"100003562\"}]}"

When I change (See commented line in above code) from "return json_encode($return_variable);" to "return $return_variable;", I get below output. This response is JSON fit for decode but I should receive more key-value pair instead of just 1:

{"order_count":2050,"order":[{"order_id":"2282","increment_id":"100003584"}]}

Please help me to get JSON fit for decode data with all key-value pair.

Your help is appreciated.

Magento Version 1.8

Answer 1

Try to change your foreach to something like this.

    foreach ($collection as $order) {
        $return_variable['order'][] = [
            'order_id' => $order->getId(),
            'increment_id' => $order->increment_id(),
        ];
    }

Answer 2

Finally I gave-up on getting correct JSON format. I used str_replace to remove un-necessary charactors to move forward.

Hope this helps anyone.