Template json - Wordpress post

template.php

<?php
/*
* Template name: json
*/



// include our wordpress functions
// change relative path to find your WP dir
define('WP_USE_THEMES', false);
require('./wp-config.php');
$wp->init();
$wp->parse_request();
$wp->query_posts();
$wp->register_globals();

/**
 * Returns the first $wordsreturned out of $string.  If string
 * contains more words than $wordsreturned, the entire string
 * is returned.
 * @param String $string The string to check
 * @param int $wordsreturned Max number of words to include
 */
function shorten_string($string, $wordsreturned){
    $retval = $string;
    $array = explode(' ', $string);
    if (count($array)<= $wordsreturned) {
        $retval = $string;
    }
    else {
        array_splice($array, $wordsreturned);
        $retval = implode(' ', $array).' ...';
    }
    return $retval; 
}


$get_category=$_POST['articlecategory'];

$var_posts= new WP_Query(array(
    'post_type'=>'post',
    'orderby' => 'post_date',
    'order' => 'ASC',
    'posts_per_page'=>-1,
    'tax_query' => array(
        array(
            'taxonomy' => 'category',
            'field' => 'slug',
            'terms' => array( $get_category )
        )
    )
));
$json = array(); 
if ($var_posts) {
    foreach ($var_posts->posts as $key=>$post_single) {
        $term=wp_get_post_terms( $post_single->ID, 'category');
        $ray = array();
        the_post(); 
        $ray['title'] = $post_single->post_title;
        $ray['date'] = get_the_time('j F Y', $post_single->ID);
        $ray['contents'] = strip_shortcodes(shorten_string(strip_tags($post_single->post_content), 40));
        $image=wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id($post_single->ID), 'large');
        if($image){
            $ray['image'] = $image[0];
            $ray['width'] = $image[1];
            $ray['height'] = $image[2];
        }
        if(get_post_meta($post_single->ID, "articlelink", true)){
            $ray['link'] = get_post_meta($post_single->ID, "articlelink", true);//get_field('articlelink',$post_single->ID);
        }
        $json['posts'][$key] = $ray;
    }
}

header('Content-type: application/json;');
echo json_encode($json);

?>