Magento 2 WebAPI json encode

Question

I'm returning JSON via an endpoint in Magento 2 this bit of JSON looks like the following:

    $new_json = [
        'component_1' => '[{....}]', 
        'component_2' => '[{...}]'
    ];
    return $new_json;

The endpoint works, but it returns the following:

0: "...."
1: "...."

Now I can pass the JSON into [ ] to return the following, but this isn't what I want:

[0]:
component_1: "...."
component_2: "...."

My issue is I need to return the JSON with key and value, not 0 and 1 nor a sub value e.g. [0]

Is there a setting for the endpoint to stop it encoding the JSON like this? Or is there something I need to do to return it in the way that I want?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Problem Summary: You have a PHP Array and you want to return it as a JSON Object. When you return your PHP Array, it gets converted to a JSON Array, which does not support non-sequential keys. So your keys get ignored and you end up with a sequential array of your values.

Solution Summary: You need to return a PHP Object in order to have a JSON Object in your response.

Solution Example

Please check following example that returns a sample Components object.

/Api/Data/ComponentsInterface.php

<?php
namespace Company\Components\Api\Data;

/**
 * Interface ComponentsInterface
 */
interface ComponentsInterface
{
    /**
     * Get component 1
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getComponent1();

    /**
     * Get component 2
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getComponent2();
}

/Api/ComponentsManagamentInterface.php

<?php
namespace Company\Components\Api;

/**
 * Components Management interface
 */
interface ComponentsManagementInterface
{
    /**
     * @return \Company\Components\Api\Data\ComponentsInterface
     */
    public function getComponents();
}

/etc/webapi.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<routes xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:module:Magento_Webapi:etc/webapi.xsd">
    <route url="/V1/components" method="GET">
        <service class="Company\Components\Api\ComponentsManagementInterface" method="getComponents"/>
    </route>
</routes>

/Model/Components.php

<?php
namespace Company\Components\Model;

/**
 * Components model
 */
class Components extends \Magento\Framework\DataObject implements \Company\Component\Api\Data\ComponentsInterface
{
    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */
    public function getComponent1() 
    {
        return $this->getData('component1');
    }

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */
    public function getComponent2()
    {
        return $this->getData('component2');
    }
}

/Model/ComponentsManagement.php

<?php
namespace Company\Components\Model;

/**
 * Components Management
 */
class ComponentsManagement implements \Company\Components\Api\ComponentsManagementInterface
{
    /**
    * @var \Company\Components\Api\Data\ComponentsInterfaceFactory
    */
    protected $_componentsFactory;

    /**
    * ComponentsManagement constructor.
    * @param \Company\Components\Api\Data\ComponentsInterfaceFactory $_componentsFactory
    */
    public function __construct(\Company\Components\Api\Data\ComponentsInterfaceFactory $_componentsFactory)
    {
        $this->_componentsFactory = $_componentsFactory;
    }

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */
    public function getComponents()
    {
        $components = $this->_componentsFactory->create();
        $components->setData([
            'component1' => '[{....}]',
            'component2' => '[{....}]'
            ]);
        return $components;
    }
}

/etc/di.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:ObjectManager/etc/config.xsd">
    <preference for="Company\Components\Api\Data\ComponentsInterface"
                type="Company\Components\Model\Components"/>
    <preference for="Company\Components\Api\ComponentsManagementInterface"
                type="Company\Components\Model\ComponentsManagement"/>
</config>

With above example, when you GET http://magento/rest/V1/components it will return following JSON Object:

{"component_1":"[{....}]","component_2":"[{....}]"}

Answer 2

Try this code in your controller.

protected $resultJsonFactory;

public function __construct(
    \Magento\Framework\App\Action\Context $context,
    \Magento\Framework\Controller\Result\JsonFactory $resultJsonFactory
){   
    parent::__construct($context);
    $this->resultJsonFactory   = $resultJsonFactory;
}

public function execute()
{
    $result = $this->resultJsonFactory->create();
    $data = array('component_1' => '[{....}]', 'component_2' => '[{...}]');
    $result->setData($data);
    return $result;
}