Parsing a JSON file

Hey all,

I have a need to create a process that takes a JSON file and leverages some APIs to create some tickets in our ticketing system. The JSON comes out in a specific file format that looks like the following:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "name":"item1",
      "description":"item 1's description",
      "metadata":"metatag1"
    },
    {
      "name":"item2",
      "description":"item 2's description",
      "metadata":"metatag2"
    },
    {
      "name":"item3",
      "description":"item 3's description",
      "metadata":"metatag3"
    }
  ]
}

I want to iterate through this JSON file, but I am unsure how to do it. Process would be something like:

  1. Store 'item1' as $name
  2. Store 'item 1's description' as $description
  3. Store 'metatag1' as $metadata
  4. Create string with variables
  5. Do "stuff" with string
  6. Repeat for next "item" until there are no more items

If this was a CSV file, I would simply go row by row and increment every time I reach the end of line, storing each column in the designated variable. With JSON, I am not sure how I iterate through the entries. My googleFu is garbage with this process so apologies in advance if I didn't search well enough. I feel like the [] indicate an array and therefore each individual "item" is an array index? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

Update: Everyone in the replies is awesome. Thank you!