Using JSON PHP Script inside loop gets fatal error

Question

The bespoke JSON/PHP Code:

    <?php 
      $url = ("<<URL HERE>>");
      function new_file_get_contents($url) {
      $ch = curl_init();
      $timeout = 0; // set to zero for no timeout
      curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
      curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
      curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
      $file_contents = curl_exec($ch);
      curl_close($ch);
      return $file_contents;
      }
      $json = new_file_get_contents($url);
      $data=json_decode($json); 
      $uname = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'Json-Name', true);
      foreach($data->callCentres as $callCentres){
      foreach($callCentres->operators as $operator){
      if($operator->username == $uname) {
      if ($operator->status == 1) {echo "Currently Online And Available";} 
      elseif ($operator->status == 2){echo "Currently Online But Busy";} 
      elseif ($operator->status == 3){echo "Currently Offline";}
      }     
      }
      }
      ?>

where json-name is a custome field.

I have created parent and child templates.

The child displays a user profile, the parent displays a list summary of all the user profiles.

When I use the above code on the child, it's fine.

When I use the above code on the parent, the first user profile is functional, the second gives the error message:

    Fatal error: Cannot redeclare new_file_get_contents() (previously declared in ...

The above script is used within

    <?php 
query_posts(array('showposts' => 23, 'post_parent' => 478, 'post_type' => 'page'));
while (have_posts()) {
the_post(); // vital
    ?>

Probably something obvious...but I can't see it!

REAL LIFE OF PROBLEM - CLICK HERE

Appreciate somebody's assitance!

Cheers Andy

Answer 1

Don't house the function itself within that page. You are basically defining function new_file_get_contents() for every time the loop is being run. If you put the function in your functions.php file, it will be accessible by your other pages.

If you don't want to move it, you could do this:

if( ! functions_exists( 'new_file_get_contents') ) {
function new_file_get_contents($url) {
 $ch = curl_init();
 $timeout = 0; // set to zero for no timeout
 curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
 curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
 curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
 $file_contents = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $file_contents;
    }
}

But, this is the broken way of doing it. Move the function to another file, or at least outside of the loop, such as the top of the page.