Invalid JSON Payload Google Sheets API Appending fields

Question

So what I am trying to do is get the values of a range of cells on a google sheet.

I have successfully managed to do that.

Then with the array of values I make another API request to our CRM system that too returns me a set of results. The set of results that are returned to me from our CRM system I want to update the cells in a different range from where I read the values. It's all on the same google sheet.

However I seem to encounter an error when attempting to append the fields.

"Invalid JSON payload received. Unknown name \"0\" at 'data.values[0]'

I am running a foreach loop on the array I created just simply printing out the values I need so I know it is not an empty array and in fact does contain the data I am after. So what is it I am missing?

This is the code I am working with so far.

<?php
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

if (php_sapi_name() != 'cli') {
    throw new Exception('This application must be run on the command line.');
}

/**
 * Returns an authorized API client.
 * @return Google_Client the authorized client object
*/
function getClient()
{
 $client = new Google_Client();
 $client->setApplicationName('Google Sheets API PHP Quickstart');
 $client->setScopes(array(
     Google_Service_Slides::PRESENTATIONS,
     Google_Service_Slides::DRIVE,
     Google_Service_Slides::DRIVE_FILE,
     Google_Service_Slides::SPREADSHEETS)
 );
$client->setAuthConfig('credentials.json');
$client->setAccessType('offline');
$client->setPrompt('select_account consent');

// Load previously authorized token from a file, if it exists.
// The file token.json stores the user's access and refresh tokens, and is
// created automatically when the authorization flow completes for the first
// time.
$tokenPath = 'token.json';
if (file_exists($tokenPath)) {
    $accessToken = json_decode(file_get_contents($tokenPath), true);
    $client->setAccessToken($accessToken);
}

// If there is no previous token or it's expired.
if ($client->isAccessTokenExpired()) {
    // Refresh the token if possible, else fetch a new one.
    if ($client->getRefreshToken()) {
        $client->fetchAccessTokenWithRefreshToken($client->getRefreshToken());
    } else {
        // Request authorization from the user.
        $authUrl = $client->createAuthUrl();
        printf("Open the following link in your browser:\n%s\n", $authUrl);
        print 'Enter verification code: ';
        $authCode = trim(fgets(STDIN));

        // Exchange authorization code for an access token.
        $accessToken = $client->fetchAccessTokenWithAuthCode($authCode);
        $client->setAccessToken($accessToken);

        // Check to see if there was an error.
        if (array_key_exists('error', $accessToken)) {
            throw new Exception(join(', ', $accessToken));
        }
    }
    // Save the token to a file.
    if (!file_exists(dirname($tokenPath))) {
        mkdir(dirname($tokenPath), 0700, true);
    }
    file_put_contents($tokenPath, json_encode($client->getAccessToken()));
    }
     return $client;
    }
// Get the API client and construct the service object.
$client = getClient();
$service = new Google_Service_Sheets($client);
$spreadsheetId = '1UOfOdjGTWXir4pGNKtb7MRJSnFlJvOqr_CBZtkQUGxA';
$range = 'COMPANY FORMULAS - MARKETING!B2:B36';
$response = $service->spreadsheets_values->get($spreadsheetId, $range);
$values = $response->getValues();

if (empty($values)) {
print "No data found.\n";
} else {
foreach ($values as $row) {
    //creating XML to pass to FLG
    $xmldata = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
                    <data>
                    <key>zW0vRSn2EXqMIwklG0IeJ8g2GUCp2Pfg</key>
                    <request>read</request>
                    <id>'.$row[0].'</id>
                </data>';
    //using curl to send XML data to FLG via API            
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://watts.flg360.co.uk/api/APIPartner.php" );
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1 );
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $xmldata); 
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,     array('Content-Type: text/plain')); 
    $returnedresult=curl_exec ($ch);
    $xmlresult = simplexml_load_string($returnedresult);
    $companyBalance[] = $xmlresult->balance;
}
//var_dump($companyBalance);
foreach ($companyBalance as $row) {
    echo $row . "\n";
}
$spreadsheetId = '1UOfOdjGTWXir4pGNKtb7MRJSnFlJvOqr_CBZtkQUGxA';
$range = 'COMPANY FORMULAS - MARKETING!D2:D36';
$body = new Google_Service_Sheets_ValueRange([
'values' => $companyBalance
]);
$result = $service->spreadsheets_values->append($spreadsheetId, $range, 
$body);
    printf("%d cells appended.", $result->getUpdates()->getUpdatedCells());
}

So basically it is just appending the cells that doesn't seem to be working. Is it the format in which I am passing the array across? Is it the fact I haven't defined it to be a JSON array? Does it require a specific format I just don't know and I can't seem to find the right answer in the documentation as it just seems you can pass it an array when appending multiple values.

Thanks in advance!

Liam Barnett Liam Barnett · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-14T10:51:05

So in the end it was a couple of things.

Firstly I was trying to pass and XML object and convert it into a PHP array. Sheets API didn't like this so to get around that I had to create the array like this. Not the prettiest but it works

$companyBalance[] = sprintf("%s",$xmlresult->balance);

This allowed me to create an array that was made up of strings.

Then because I was building this array dynamically I then used a for loop to access each part of the array and update the cells individually. Again not the most elegant solution but I just don't have time to go back and change it right this second. However this might help someone who needs to be pointed in the right direction.

for ($x = 0; $x <= 36; $x++) {
    $y = $x + 2;
    $values = [[$companyBalance[$x]]];
    $options = array('valueInputOption' => 'RAW');
    $body   = new Google_Service_Sheets_ValueRange(['values' => $values]);
    $result = $service->spreadsheets_values->update('SHEET_ID', 'COMPANY FORMULAS - MARKETING!D'.$y.':D'.$y.'', $body, $options);
    print($result->updatedRange. PHP_EOL);
}

Invalid JSON Payload Google Sheets API Appending fields

1 Answers