/**
* Get the countries from the JSON file, if it hasn't already been loaded.
*
* @return array
*/
public static function getCountries()
{
//Get the countries from the JSON file
if (sizeof(Countries::$countries) == 0) {
Countries::$countries = json_decode(file_get_contents(__DIR__ . '/countries.json'), true);
}
//Return the countries
return Countries::$countries;
}
