Hi all. I have recently posted another question which straight away users pointed me in the right direction.

$.ajax({ 
        type: 'POST', url: './', data: 'token=' + token + '&re=8', cache: false, timeout: 5000,
        success: function(html){ 
            auth(html);
            var JSON_array = eval(html);
            alert(JSON_array[0].username); 
        }                           
    });

this returns the data correctly but I want to perform a kind of 'foreach'. the array contains data about multiple incoming and outgoing Instant Messages. So if a user is talking to more than one person at a time i need to loop through. the array's structure is as follows.

    Array
(

    [0] => Array
        (
            [username] => Emmalene
            [contents] => 
                          <ul><li class="name">ACTwebDesigns</li><li class="speech">helllllllo</li></ul>
                          <ul><li class="name">ACTwebDesigns</li><li class="speech">sds</li></ul>
                          <ul><li class="name">ACTwebDesigns</li><li class="speech">Sponge</li><li class="speech">dick</li></ul>
                          <ul><li class="name">ACTwebDesigns</li><li class="speech">arghh</li></ul>
        )

)

any help very much appreciated.