How to remove multiple UTF-8 BOM sequences
you would use the following code to remove utf8 bom
//Remove UTF8 Bom
function remove_utf8_bom($text)
{
$bom = pack('H*','EFBBBF');
$text = preg_replace("/^$bom/", '', $text);
return $text;
}
try:
// -------- read the file-content ----
$str = file_get_contents($source_file);
// -------- remove the utf-8 BOM ----
$str = str_replace("\xEF\xBB\xBF",'',$str);
// -------- get the Object from JSON ----
$obj = json_decode($str);
:)