I’m working on building a follower notification system for Twitch using PHP. I’ve managed to identify the API endpoint that provides follower data, but I’m running into issues with processing the JSON response. My main challenge is extracting the follower’s username from the API response and converting it into a usable string variable. I’ve been trying to work with the Twitch API endpoint that returns recent followers, but I’m not sure how to properly parse the data. Could someone help me understand how to decode this information and extract just the username portion? I’m relatively new to working with APIs in PHP, so any guidance on the proper approach would be really helpful.
Been there with Twitch API integration. First thing - use var_dump() on your decoded JSON to see exactly what you’re working with. When I built my follower tracker, the API response format was different between endpoints, so double-check you’re using the right one. Helix API needs proper auth headers with your Client-ID and Bearer token. Once you decode the JSON, the username sits under different keys depending on the endpoint - sometimes ‘display_name’, sometimes ‘login’. Test with a simple GET request in curl or Postman first to see the exact response format before jumping into PHP.
Your problem’s probably with json_decode() and how you’re accessing the nested array data. First, decode the Twitch API response with json_decode($response, true) - that true converts it to an associative array instead of objects. The follower data sits under a ‘data’ key, so you’d grab usernames like $followers[‘data’][0][‘from_name’]. I hit this exact wall when I started with Twitch webhooks last year. Don’t forget pagination since Twitch caps results per request. Also check your OAuth token has the right scopes for follower data - that tripped me up early on and gave weird responses.