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POSerializing PHP object to JSON
 

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    <p>So I was wandering around <a href="http://php.net">php.net</a> for information about serializing PHP objects to JSON, when I stumbled across the new <a href="http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.jsonserializable.php">JsonSerializable Interface</a>. It's only <strong>PHP >= 5.4</strong> though, and I'm running in a 5.3.x environment.</p> <p>How is this sort of functionality achieved <strong>PHP &lt; 5.4</strong>?</p> <p>I've not worked much with JSON yet, but I'm trying to support an API layer in an application, and dumping the data object (<em>that would otherwise be sent to the view</em>) into JSON would be perfect.</p> <p>If I attempt to serialize the object directly, it returns an empty JSON string; which is because I assume <code>json_encode()</code> doesn't know what the heck to do with the object. Should I recursively reduce the object into an array, and then encode <em>that</em>?</p> <hr> <h1>Example</h1> <pre><code>$data = new Mf_Data(); $data-&gt;foo-&gt;bar['hello'] = 'world'; </code></pre> <p><strong><code>echo json_encode($data)</code></strong> produces an empty object:</p> <pre><code>{} </code></pre> <p><strong><code>var_dump($data)</code></strong> however, works as expected:</p> <pre><code>object(Mf_Data)#1 (5) { ["_values":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; array(0) { } ["_children":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; array(1) { [0]=&gt; array(1) { ["foo"]=&gt; object(Mf_Data)#2 (5) { ["_values":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; array(0) { } ["_children":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; array(1) { [0]=&gt; array(1) { ["bar"]=&gt; object(Mf_Data)#3 (5) { ["_values":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; array(1) { [0]=&gt; array(1) { ["hello"]=&gt; string(5) "world" } } ["_children":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; array(0) { } ["_parent":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; *RECURSION* ["_key":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; string(3) "bar" ["_index":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; int(0) } } } ["_parent":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; *RECURSION* ["_key":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; string(3) "foo" ["_index":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; int(0) } } } ["_parent":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; NULL ["_key":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; NULL ["_index":"Mf_Data":private]=&gt; int(0) } </code></pre> <hr> <h1>Addendum</h1> <h2>1)</h2> <p>So this is the <code>toArray()</code> function I've devised for the <code>Mf_Data</code> class:</p> <pre><code>public function toArray() { $array = (array) $this; array_walk_recursive($array, function (&amp;$property) { if ($property instanceof Mf_Data) { $property = $property-&gt;toArray(); } }); return $array; } </code></pre> <p>However since the <code>Mf_Data</code> objects also have a reference to their parent (<em>containing</em>) object, this fails with recursion. Works like a charm though when I remove the <code>_parent</code> reference.</p> <h2>2)</h2> <p>Just to follow up, the final function to transform a complex tree-node object I went with was:</p> <pre><code>// class name - Mf_Data // exlcuded properties - $_parent, $_index public function toArray() { $array = get_object_vars($this); unset($array['_parent'], $array['_index']); array_walk_recursive($array, function (&amp;$property) { if (is_object($property) &amp;&amp; method_exists($property, 'toArray')) { $property = $property-&gt;toArray(); } }); return $array; } </code></pre> <h2>3)</h2> <p>I'm following up again, with a bit cleaner of an implementation. Using interfaces for an <code>instanceof</code> check seems much cleaner than <code>method_exists()</code> (<em>however <code>method_exists()</code> does cross-cut inheritance/implementation</em>).</p> <p>Using <code>unset()</code> seemed a bit messy too, and it seems that logic should be refactored into another method. However, this implementation <em>does</em> copy the property array (<em>due to <code>array_diff_key</code></em>), so something to consider.</p> <pre><code>interface ToMapInterface { function toMap(); function getToMapProperties(); } class Node implements ToMapInterface { private $index; private $parent; private $values = array(); public function toMap() { $array = $this-&gt;getToMapProperties(); array_walk_recursive($array, function (&amp;$value) { if ($value instanceof ToMapInterface) { $value = $value-&gt;toMap(); } }); return $array; } public function getToMapProperties() { return array_diff_key(get_object_vars($this), array_flip(array( 'index', 'parent' ))); } } </code></pre>
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    1. CO+1 Nice question, didn't know this feature yet.
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    2. CO@takeshin - Yeop, edit date on the doc page is 4 days ago. I'm glad to see it!
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