Reputation: 12835

PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function json_decode()

Apache is logging PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function json_decode(). After some googling, it seems this problem is a result of not having the latest version of php. Oddly, running php --version ouputs

PHP 5.5.1-2+debphp.org~precise+2 (cli) (built: Aug  6 2013 10:49:43) 
Copyright (c) 1997-2013 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.5.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2013 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.0.2-dev, Copyright (c) 1999-2013, by Zend Technologies
    with Xdebug v2.2.3, Copyright (c) 2002-2013, by Derick Rethans

Clearly showing that my php version is greater than 5.1.

Any ideas as to what could cause this, or the steps to take to find out?

EDIT: The result of a script echoing phpversion is 5.5.1-2+debphp.org~precise

EDIT: The result of phpinfo() is also PHP Version 5.5.1-2+debphp.org~precise+2

Furthermore, in the phpinfo(), it lists the module JSON and the module authors (Omar Kilani, Scott MacVicar).

Upvotes: 185

Answers (11)

Jeremiah Deasey

Reputation: 49

cPanel

Go to MultiPHP INI Editor and select the Editor Mode tab, enter the following to enable JSON extensions:

extension=json.so

Or, if you have an existing php.ini file in your root directory, check if this extension is listed and make sure it's not commented out (preceded by semi-colon).

Upvotes: 1

kintsukuroi

Reputation: 1479

As a RHEL 8 user, this was fixed with:

yum install php-json

And then reloading nginx and php-fpm. So basically the json libraries where missing from the default php install.

This should also work on CENTOS 8.

Upvotes: 10

Joan Teran

Reputation: 1

CENTOS

Scene

I installed PHP in Centos Docker, this is my DockerFile:

FROM centos:7.6.1810

LABEL maintainer="[email protected]"

RUN yum install httpd-2.4.6-88.el7.centos -y
RUN rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
RUN rpm -Uvh https://mirror.webtatic.com/yum/el7/webtatic-release.rpm
RUN yum install php72w -y
ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/sbin/httpd", "-D", "FOREGROUND"]

The app returned the same error with json_decode and json_encode

Resolution

Install PHP Common that has json_encode and json_decode

yum install -y php72w-common-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64

How to find the resolution?

I have another Docker File what build the container for the API and it has the order to install php-mysql client:

yum install php72w-mysql.x86_64 -y

If i use these image to mount the app, the json_encode and json_decode works!! Ok..... What dependencies does this have?

[root@c023b46b720c etc]# yum install php72w-mysql.x86_64
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.gtdinternet.com
 * epel: mirror.globo.com
 * extras: linorg.usp.br
 * updates: mirror.gtdinternet.com
 * webtatic: us-east.repo.webtatic.com
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package php72w-mysql.x86_64 0:7.2.14-1.w7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: php72w-pdo(x86-64) for package: php72w-mysql-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libmysqlclient.so.18(libmysqlclient_18)(64bit) for package: php72w-mysql-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libmysqlclient.so.18()(64bit) for package: php72w-mysql-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package mariadb-libs.x86_64 1:5.5.60-1.el7_5 will be installed
---> Package php72w-pdo.x86_64 0:7.2.14-1.w7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: php72w-common(x86-64) = 7.2.14-1.w7 for package: php72w-pdo-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package php72w-common.x86_64 0:7.2.14-1.w7 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

========================================================================================================
 Package                   Arch               Version                        Repository            Size
========================================================================================================
Installing:
 php72w-mysql              x86_64             7.2.14-1.w7                    webtatic              82 k
Installing for dependencies:
 mariadb-libs              x86_64             1:5.5.60-1.el7_5               base                 758 k
 php72w-common             x86_64             7.2.14-1.w7                    webtatic             1.3 M
 php72w-pdo                x86_64             7.2.14-1.w7                    webtatic              89 k

Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================
Install  1 Package (+3 Dependent packages)

Total download size: 2.2 M
Installed size: 17 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
(1/4): mariadb-libs-5.5.60-1.el7_5.x86_64.rpm                                    | 758 kB  00:00:00     
(2/4): php72w-mysql-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64.rpm                                       |  82 kB  00:00:01     
(3/4): php72w-pdo-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64.rpm                                         |  89 kB  00:00:01     
(4/4): php72w-common-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64.rpm                                      | 1.3 MB  00:00:06     
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                   336 kB/s | 2.2 MB  00:00:06     
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
  Installing : 1:mariadb-libs-5.5.60-1.el7_5.x86_64                                                 1/4 
  Installing : php72w-common-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64                                                     2/4 
  Installing : php72w-pdo-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64                                                        3/4 
  Installing : php72w-mysql-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64                                                      4/4 
  Verifying  : php72w-common-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64                                                     1/4 
  Verifying  : 1:mariadb-libs-5.5.60-1.el7_5.x86_64                                                 2/4 
  Verifying  : php72w-pdo-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64                                                        3/4 
  Verifying  : php72w-mysql-7.2.14-1.w7.x86_64                                                      4/4 

Installed:
  php72w-mysql.x86_64 0:7.2.14-1.w7                                                                     

Dependency Installed:
  mariadb-libs.x86_64 1:5.5.60-1.el7_5                php72w-common.x86_64 0:7.2.14-1.w7               
  php72w-pdo.x86_64 0:7.2.14-1.w7                    

Complete!

Yes! Inside the dependences is the common packages. I Installed it into my other container and it works! After, i put de directive into DockerFile, Git commit!! Git Tag!!!! Git Push!!!! Ready!

Upvotes: 0

jszobody

Reputation: 28959

Using Ubuntu?

Short answer:

sudo apt-get install php7.2-json

(or php7.1-json or php5-json depending on the PHP version you're running)

Then of course make sure you restart Apache:

sudo service apache2 restart

Or if you are using PHP-FPM:

sudo service php7.2-fpm restart

(Or php7.1-fpm or php5-fpm)

Explanation

Debian has removed the previous JSON extension as of PHP 5.5rc2 due to a license conflict.

The JSON license has a clause which states:

The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil.

This causes a problem with Free Software Foundation's definition of free software which states:

The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).

FSF goes on to specifically list the JSON license as nonfree.

Yes it seems a bit silly. Nevertheless Debian has removed the non-compliant JSON extension, and instead offered a replacement extension that is functionally equivalent.

To be clear: PHP itself has NOT removed JSON, it's still in master. This is a distro / package manager issue.

Rasmus makes it pretty clear:

We have not removed json and we will never release a version of php without json support built in. Any changes in 5.5 is due to whatever distro packaging you are using which we have no control over.

More details

http://iteration99.com/2013/php-json-licensing-and-php-5-5/

http://liorkaplan.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/bye-bye-non-free-php-json-extension/

https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=63520

http://philsturgeon.co.uk/blog/2013/08/fud-cracker-php-55-never-lost-json-support

Upvotes: 375

jaxxed

Reputation: 302

you might also consider avoiding the core PHP module altogether.

It is quite common to use the guzzle json tools as a library in PHP apps these days. If your app is a composer app, it is trivial to include them as a part of a composer build. The guzzle tool, as a library, would be a turnkey replacement for the json tool, if you tell PHP to autoinclude the tool.

http://docs.guzzlephp.org/en/stable/search.html?q=json_encode#

http://apigen.juzna.cz/doc/guzzle/guzzle/function-GuzzleHttp.json_decode.html

Upvotes: 0

Rafy

Reputation: 837

I have the same question: PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function json_decode(), but I run php under cygwin on Windows. When I run php -m, I found that there is no json module installed. So I run cygwin setup.exe again, check json package from the configuration interface, and the problem is solved.

Upvotes: 2

yesnik

Reputation: 4695

If you're using phpbrew try to install json extension to fix error with undefined function json_decode():

phpbrew ext install json

Upvotes: 4

Carl Hinton

Reputation: 21

The same issue with 7.1

apt-get install php7.1-json sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/mods-available/json.ini

Add json.so to the new file
Add the appropriate sym link under conf.d
Restart apache2 service (if needed)

Upvotes: 2

Nicolas Schubhan

Reputation: 1756

The module was install but symbolic link was not in /etc/php5/cli/conf.d

Upvotes: 1

David

Reputation: 896

With Ubuntu :

sudo apt-get install php5-json
sudo service php5-fpm restart

Upvotes: 12

milkovsky

Reputation: 8862

Solution for LAMP users:

apt-get install php5-json
service apache2 restart

Source

Upvotes: 8