Retrieving Column values using PHP seeing NULL in place of value

monday Apps & Developers
, ,
1

I using Heredoc in PHP to retrieve column values for a dashboard. In one status column is years. While that value is in the data from the API Playground, it’s showing as null in my json_encoded response.

What am I missing?

My getItems() method:

public function getItem(int $itemId) {
  $query = <<<'GQL'
      query GetItem($itemIdVar: [ID!]!) {
        items(ids: $itemIdVar) {
          id  
          name
          group {
            id  
            title
          }   
          column_values {
            id  
            value
            text
            type
          }   
          board { 
            id        
          }   
        }   
      }   
  GQL;
      
      $variables = [
          'itemIdVar' => [(string)$itemId],
      ];

      $result = $this->executeQuery($query, $variables);

      if (!is_array($result) || isset($result['error'])) {
          error_log(
              'Failed to fetch Monday.com item (item='
              . $itemId . '). Result: '
              . json_encode($result)
          );
          return false;
      }

      if (
          isset($result['data']['items'])
          && is_array($result['data']['items'])
          && count($result['data']['items']) > 0
      ) {
          return $result['data']['items'][0];
      }

      error_log(
          'Monday.com item not found (item='
          . $itemId . '). Full result: '
          . json_encode($result)
      );
      return false;
  }

My json_encoded response is:

{
  "id":"color_mkqhmzhq",
  "value":"{
    \"index\":5,
    \"changed_at\":\"2025-06-25T21:18:36.650Z\"
  }",
  **"text":null,**
  "type":"status"
}

What I get in API Playground is:

{
  "id": "color_mkqhmzhq",
  "value": "{
    \"index\":3,
    \"post_id\":null,
    \"changed_at\":\"2025-06-27T15:11:28.390Z\"
  }",   
  **"text": "2024",**    // missing in PHP response
  "type": "status"
}

UPDATE: This is also from the same json_encoded response, also a status column:

{
  "id":"color_mkqg102a",
  "value":"{
    \"index\":2
  }",
  "text":"Not Scheduled",  // notice the value of the label
  "type":"status"
 }

Here is a copy of my executeQuery() with error logs to see what’s failing where.

private function executeQuery(string $query, array $variables) {
          $headers = [
              "Content-Type: application/json",
              "Authorization: " . $this->api_key // Use the private property
          ];

          $headerString = implode("\r\n", $headers) . "\r\n";
          $payload = json_encode(['query' => $query, 'variables' => $variables]);

          $context = stream_context_create([
              'http' => [
                  'method' => 'POST',
                  'header' => $headerString,
                  'content' => $payload,
                  'ignore_errors' => true
              ]
          ]);
          $response = @file_get_contents($this->api_url, false, $context); 

          if ($response === false) {
              error_log('(1) Monday.com API Request Failed: No response or network error.');
              return false;
          }

          $http_response_header_str = implode("\r\n", $http_response_header);
          preg_match('/HTTP\/[\d\.]+\s*(\d+)/', $http_response_header_str, $matches);
          $http_code = isset($matches[1]) ? (int)$matches[1] : 0;
          $decodedResponse = json_decode($response, true);

          if ($decodedResponse === null && json_last_error() !== JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
              error_log('(2) Monday.com API: JSON decoding error: ' . json_last_error_msg() . ' (Raw response: ' . $response . ')');
              return false;
          }

          if (isset($decodedResponse['errors'])) {
              error_log('Monday.com API Error (HTTP ' . $http_code . '): ' . json_encode($decodedResponse['errors']));
              return ['error' => 'Monday.com API Error', 'http_code' => $http_code, 'details' => $decodedResponse];
          }

          error_log('DEBUG: executeQuery - Decoded Monday.com Response (before return): ' . json_encode($decodedResponse));
          return $decodedResponse;
      }
2

Try this for your variables:

  $variables = {
    "variables"=> {
          "itemIdVar" => [ (string)$itemId ]
      }
  };

*edit fixed from original input on phone

3

That throws an JSON Parse error:
→ Login Error: JSON Parse Error. Raw response text:

4

Solved. Was looking at the wrong item data.

1 Like