Serialize and unserialize a PHP object-graph to/from a JSON string-representation.
This library can serialize and unserialize a complete PHP object-graph to/from a JSON string-representation.
This library differs in a number of ways from e.g. json_encode(), serialize(),
var_export() and other existing serialization libraries, in a number of important
ways.
Please see here for detailed technical background information.
The most important thing to understand, is that this library is designed to store self-contained object-graphs - it does not support shared or circular object-references. This is by design, and in-tune with good DDD design practices. An object-graph with shared or circular references cannot be stored directly as JSON, in a predictable format, primarily because the JSON data-format is a tree, not a graph.
Nothing to it.
use mindplay\jsonfreeze\JsonSerializer;
$serializer = new JsonSerializer();
// serialize to JSON:
$string = $serializer->serialize($my_object);
// rebuild your object from JSON:
$object = $serializer->unserialize($string);You can define your own un/serialization functions for a specified class:
$serializer = new JsonSerializer();
$serializer->defineSerialization(
MyType::class,
function (MyType $object) {
return ["foo" => $object->foo, "bar" => $object->bar];
},
function (array $data) {
return new MyType($data["foo"], $data["bar"]);
}
);Note that this works only for concrete classes, and not for abstract classes or interfaces - serialization functions apply to precisely one class, although you can of course register the same functions to multiple classes.
The DateTime and DateTimeImmutable classes have pre-registered un/serialization
functions supporting a custom format, in which the date/time is stored in the common
ISO-8601 date/time format in the UTC timezone, along with the timezone ID - for example:
{
"#type": "DateTime",
"datetime": "1975-07-07T00:00:00Z",
"timezone": "America\/New_York"
}