Hi, I have a database of latitude and longitude points, along with some comments. I want to create a location screen that is populated with the points from that database. I wrote a PHP script that queries the database, pulls out the information, and formats it in correct JSON format. I validated the output online. The problem I'm having is that if I set the DataURL in my control panel to the .php file, I get an error saying invalid format. However, if I run the script, dump the data to a text file, and then point the DataURL to the file (which has the EXACT same output as the PHP script), everything works! Is it possible that my app is having problems processing the output from the PHP file on the fly? Should it work having the DataURL call a PHP file, or does it only work with a text file of points (in correct JSON format)? Thanks! Mark

Hi Mark, How are you using the .php file to return the JSON?

Hi Parker, Here is the PHP that I call from the DataURL. Minus all the necessary quotes that get stripped from the forum, of course : <?php $db = mysql_connect(localhost, user, password); mysql_select_db(dbname,$db); $result = mysql_query(SELECT ID, Latitude, Longitude, Description from tablename,$db); $num = mysql_num_rows($result); $i = 1; print {\childItems\:[<br>; if ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) do { printf(  {\itemId\:\%s\,<br>, $myrow[ID]); print   \itemType\:\BT_MapLocation\,<br>; printf(  \latitude\:\%s\,<br>, $myrow[Latitude]); printf(  \longitude\:\%s\,<br>, $myrow[Longitude]); printf(  \title\:\%s\}, $myrow[Description]); if ($num > $i) printf(,); printf(<br><br>); $i++; } while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)); else { echo Sorry, nothing there to see!; } print <br>]}; ?> You can see the output from that here --> http://www.cityshotspots.com/location-list.php If you run the output through the JSON validator, it comes up clean, and it's formatted in the exact format you guys specify in your example. If I take that output, create a txt file with it, and send the DataURL to that txt file...it all works! Thanks, Mark

easy fix. a) Load the URL you posted in your browser. Looks good right.... b) View Source in browser to see actual data (not HTML!). Looks good right...wrong! The clue that led me to find this was the carriage returns, br tags in this case. THe text data the app is getting is NOT valid json, it's html with markup, spacing, etc. If you copy-paste form your browser to a text file you're not getting the HTML so it makes sense that this would work. Lose the HTML in the php output and all will be find. If you really want it to be pretty when loaded in a browser, use /n instead of br to force a line break that is hidden, not visible. My preference is to just remove all the line breaks altogether - no need for them in JSON. Back to BT-server...2.0.7 out tomorrow night.

Dang, @David...you rock! Thank you very much for taking a look at that...makes perfect sense! I'll make the fix and report hopefully report back success! Appreciate you taking a break from your BT-server 2.0.7 work to help me out!

Stripped out all the HTML stuff and got it working...awesome stuff!

Excellent! Glad you got it working!

I am having the same problem with my quiz app. I went through and stripped out all of the html tags and JSON validated it too, but the app still won't pick it up. The .txt file does work though, but I would like to use the .php if possible any thoughts?

'the app wont' pick it up' - not sure what this means. Paste the URL in the Data URL box for the quiz. As long as the URL loads a list of childItems (questions) it'll be fine. What happens when you load the questions in your browser (using the URL), do they look right? Maybe post the URL here so we can see your quiz questions.

Thanks David. What I meant with the comment was that there is a parsing error when I try to direct the app to the php url. When I load the URL into my browser it looks right, but there is no hard returns between the individual questions. That is not needed right? Here it is: http://www.myquizcoach.com/extras/quiz_JSON_template.php Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance.

Hi @Maune12, Try this : * Go to the URL you pasted above * Copy all the output (Ctrl-C) * Go to jsonlint.org, and paste the data into the box * Notice the error on line 152 * Fix error ;-) You might have a hard return in that entry or something. I bet when you fix that particular piece of data, it'll all work. Mark

For sure you'll want to validate it. FYI. Carriage returns are OK in the data so long as they are between items. In fact, JSON becomes much easier to read when it's properly tabbed and spaced. The trick is to no introduce any of the special characters in the data itself. Example, validate something at the validator @GoNorthwest mentions, you'll see how it formats. This URL to this data loads a very large dataset. Because of this it's likely that the items come from a database or spreadsheet. I would being debuggin the JSON by limiting the output. Say like 20 questions at a time until you find the bogus ones ;-)

Oh lastly, because you say the .txt version works but the .php version does not, it's very very likely that your .PHP script has slipped in a carriage return (in the data) or an apostrophe or something where it should not. Again, debug in sections until you find it.

Thanks David. What I meant with the comment was that there is a parsing error when I try to direct the app to the php url. When I load the URL into my browser it looks right, but there is no hard returns between the individual questions. That is not needed right? Here it is: http://www.myquizcoach.com/extras/quiz_JSON_template.php Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the replies. I did check out the validator that @GoNorthWest discussed above (before I posted the original post). After the replies I checked the line he described, but I didn't get an error nor did it look strange in the validator when I copied and pasted the output from the URL into the validator. However, when I went through the option to enter in the URL into the validator and placed ?reformat=compress after the URL I did see the carriage return :) It was an extra return that I had in the database and not a problem with the script. Thanks again. I don't know why it took placing the URL into the validator to see it, but maybe this will help others. FINALLY!!!!!

Now that the script is working for me, I was wondering if someone could give me some advice on how to randomize the answers for the questions on the v1.5 quiz with php. I pastes my code on this thread: http://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=CEE507C4B8B22BF950242B1&status=&searchInput=Randomize&sortColumn=FT.dateStampUTC&sortUpDown=DESC¤tPage=1&doViews=1 I know it might be a messy script (I'm welcome to any suggestions to clean it up) but it works. Thank you in advance.

Good Stuff... Would it be possible to include a URL field in the sql database and have each map point open up a custom URL screen displaying the associated URL?

hello i used Gonorthwest document for the maps. i got it working. it failed in the first place because i used * in the desription part of the text. thnx north for your turorial. i have a question do wich might be a bit technical. is it possible to popup a image + a website link to an article in this script? so when it shows a result (red pin) it displays an image and weblink to an article.