ObjectSerializer

A lightweight, adapter based library for serializing and unserializing PHP objects. Features getter/setter detection and event hooks for high customisation.

Features

(Un)serializing nested objects
Whitelisting and Blacklisting variables to serialize

Todo

Write adapters XML
Doctrine 2 and Doctrine ODM integration (adapters for Entities and Documents)
Refactor adapter configuration
Event system
Working with collections
How to handle deep class hierarchies

Usage

ObjectSerializer is made of 3 main components:

ArrayAdapter - responsible for converting an object to an array (and vice-versa)
Adapter - responsible for serializing and unserializing arrays to various formats (e.g. JSON, XML, etc)
SerializerManager - Bring the above together in a simple interface

At this stage I have only written a simple ArrayAdapter (called ObjectAdapter) for dealing with objects. There a two data adapters, a JSON adapter and an ArrayAdapter (made for testing, does nothing to the input/output).

Writing an array adapter or data adapter is simple, just look at the provided interfaces and the internals of the existing adapters and you should get the idea.

Serialization

<?php

class BasicClass
{

    private $myVar;

    public function __construct($myVar)
    {
        $this->myVar = $myVar;
    }

    private function getMyVar()
    {
        return $this->myVar;
    }

}

$arrayAdapter = new \ObjectSerializer\ArrayAdapter\ObjectAdapter(array('unserialize' => 'BasicClass'));
$adapter = new \ObjectSerializer\Adapter\ArrayAdapter(); // or use JsonAdapter
$sm = new \ObjectSerializer\SerializerManager($arrayAdapyer, $adapter);
$basicClass = new BasicClass('Serialize Me!')

$asArray = $sm->serialize($basicClass); // Returns: array('myVar' => 'Serialize Me!')

Unserialization

<?php

// ... continuing on from the above example

$data = array('myVar' => 'Unserialize Me!');

$basicClass = $sm->unserialize($data);
echo $basicClass->getMyVar(); // Echoes: Unserialize Me!

Unserializing nested class

<?php

class SubClass extends BasicClass {}

$config = array(
    'unserialize' => array(
        'BasicClass' => array(
            'myVar' => 'BasicClass'
        )
    )
);

$arrayAdapter = new \ObjectSerializer\ArrayAdapter\ObjectAdapter($config);
$adapter = new \ObjectSerializer\Adapter\JsonAdapter();
$sm = new \ObjectSerializer\SerializerManager($arrayAdapter, $adapter);

$json = '{"myVar":{"myVar":"I'm an instance of SubClass"}';

$basicClass = $sm->unserialize($json);
echo $basicClass->getMyVar()->getMyVar() // Echoes: I'm an instance of SubClass