title: Decode json string returned from Flickr API using PHP, curl
body: <p>Im trying to decode a json string returned from flickr within my PHP code. Im using CURL but it keeps returning a string even when I wrap json_decode() around the json sring variable. Any ideas?</p>
  
  <pre><code>$api_key = '####';
  $photoset_id = '###';
  
  $query = 'http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/?&amp;method=flickr.photosets.getPhotos&amp;api_key='.$api_key.'&amp;photoset_id='.$photoset_id.'&amp;extras=url_o,url_t&amp;format=json&amp;jsoncallback=1';
  
  $ch = curl_init(); // open curl session
  
  // set curl options
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $query);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);    
  $data = curl_exec($ch); // execute curl session
  curl_close($ch); // close curl session
  var_dump(json_decode($data));
  </code></pre>