CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Very weird issue.  I'm using the REST API to get participants based on the event_id.  For the most part it's working.  There are some events for which nothing gets returned, even though I KNOW, based on the api explorer and the data in CIVICRM, that there are participants in the event.  Here's an example:

I've cut and pasted the page from the api explorer, and you can see I get participants for event_id 144:  (i've cut off the actual user data at the bottom so personal info isn't revealed).


entity   |  action   |   debug  |   sequential  |   json
 
Generated codes for this api call
URL   
ajax query |REST query.
smarty   {crmAPI var='result' entity='Participant' action='get' event_id=144 sequential=1}
{foreach from=$result.values item=Participant}
  <li>{$Participant.some_field}</li>
{/foreach}
php   $params = array(
  'version' => 3,
  'event_id' => 144,
  'sequential' => 1,
);
$result = civicrm_api('Participant', 'get', $params);
javascript   CRM.api('Participant', 'get', {'event_id': 144, 'sequential': 1},
  {success: function(data) {
      cj.each(data, function(key, value) {// do something });
    }
  }
);
 {
   "is_error":0,
   "undefined_fields":["participant_test","event_id"],
   "version":3,
   "count":14,
   "values":[{
      "contact_id":"26956",
      "contact_type":"Individual",
      "contact_sub_type":"",

There are obviously 14 participants in this event.

However, this is the rest api call (which works for the vast majority of other events, so I know the code is right...):

$participantxml = simplexml_load_file("https://mysite.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/rest.php??entity=Participant&action=get&event_id=144&debug=1&json=1&key=$sitekey&api_key=$api_key");

                    print_r($participantxml);

This simply returns nothing at all.  If I replace event_id=144 with event_id=148 which is another event, almost identical to this one, just different participants, I get everything I expect when I do the print_r

I've tried getting rid of the debug statements, adding in a rowCount, just returning all events (this doesn't work at all), etc.  Any suggestions or ideas for what is wrong?  I'm guessing some kind of weird permissions issues, but don't know where to start.  How can I get some debug info on this if nothing at all is returned?

@erik, seems that it's already json on the rest, so the xml if off the hook on that one.

There is very little different between the api explorer/ajax and the rest.

does the user that correspond to the api_key have the needed permissions? can you try to login with this account and try the api explorer?

do you log errors? can you check if there is something in it? you have hit a bug indeed, it should always return something, with is_error=1 if there is a problem, not silently die

If the problem is specific to an event it's likely there is a character in the event description or some other field related to it that is breaking the json / xml

So, I think I know what's happening.  I was able to generate an error:
 parser error : StartTag: invalid element name
This ONLY happens in the case when the event includes a nonzero
participant_fee_level":["per person for xxx affiliate agencies"]

In this case, the error says:
Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: <0>Per person for xxx affiliate agencies</0> in /home/virtual/site18/fst/var/www/html/cctomoodle/workingcivicrm.php on line 47

I know that it's not legal to give an XML tag a numeric value.  I don't know where the heck the XML schema is on the site to even check it. But I think this is the issue, no?  DOes anyone know how to fix this/work around it?  Should I report it as an error?

I tried to do what you said and I can't get it work.  I literally cut and pasted the code from the api.class.php example and I get an "Unable to parse returned JSON" error! 
Here's my code: (with xxx's to protect the innocent). Also note that I had to put in an extra ')' at the end of the line if($api...) as it was not coded correctly in the example code.  Made me worry right off the bat!


$api = new civicrm_api3 (array ('server' => 'http://xxxx.org','api_key'=>$api_key,'key'=>$sitekey));
    if ($api->Contact->Get(array('contact_type'=>'Individual','return'=>'sort_name,current_employer'))) {
      // each key of the result array is an attribute of the api
      echo "\n contacts found " . $api->count;
      foreach ($api->values as $c) {
        echo "\n".$c->sort_name. " working for ". $c->current_employer;
      }
      // in theory, doesn't append
    } else {
      echo $api->errorMsg();
    }


Anyway, i get that unable to parse error every time.  No idea where to go now.  Can't use XML or JSON, any other way to do this?  It seems so simple yet many days and hours and hours later, I'm no further along

can you paste the complete returned json? (from the api explorer) in the api explorer, we don't parse the result, so might be the reason. If too many sensitive data, can you validate the result to see if it's a correctly formatted one?

I can't understand were/why the json_encode goes wrong, never had any problem with it.

you can modify the api.class.php and echo the result too before the "unable to parse.." line.

My bad on the last post, got the JSON working.  Sorry the sample code had the website as http instead of https! 
I stupidly just cut and pasted the code.
Would still think that the bracket  issue is a problem,  in that it kills XML, but I guess no one uses XML??  I GREATLY appreciate everyone's assistance on this.  thanks so much!

I think Erik discussed it with his shrink, they have solved the root problem and he's not interested anymore by xml