PSON

A powerful PHP library to convert objects into JSON and vice versa using PHP attributes

Features:

• Easy-to-use
• Extensible
• High performance
• Fully customization

Getting started

Attributes

PSON gets all object properties (including parent if exists) and if some properties has JsonProperty attribute, they will be converted into JSON.

<?php
class User{

    private int $id = 1; //won't be converted into JSON

    #[JsonProperty("name")]
    private string $name = "Daniel"; //will be converted into JSON like {"name": "Daniel"} 
}

Convert object into JSON:

1. Create an object instance
2. Call PSON::toJsonArray(object) method
3. Call json_encode with your flags

Example - convert User object into JSON:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use luverelle\pson\attributes\JsonProperty;
use luverelle\pson\PSON;

class User{

    #[JsonProperty("name")]
    private string $name;
    
    #[JsonProperty("email")]
    private string $email;
    
    #[JsonProperty("rating")]
    private float $socialRating;

    public function __construct(string $name, string $email, float $socialRating){
        $this->name = $name;
        $this->email = $email;
        $this->socialRating = $socialRating;
    }
}

$user = new User("Jiang Xina", "china@gmail.cn", 999.99);
$jsonArray = PSON::toJsonArray($user);
echo json_encode($jsonArray, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

The result will be:

{
    "name": "Jiang Xina",
    "email": "china@gmail.cn",
    "rating": 999.99
}

Convert JSON into object:

1. Call json_decode with associative: true
2. If you have already instantiated your object, use PSON::fromJsonArray. It returns nothing because PHP by default passing all objects by reference
3. Otherwise, use PSON::fromJsonArrayAsClass providing the class name of that object that you want to get (return).

Example - convert JSON into User (previous example but versa):

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use luverelle\pson\attributes\JsonProperty;
use luverelle\pson\PSON;

class User{

    #[JsonProperty("name")]
    private string $name;
    
    #[JsonProperty("email")]
    private string $email;
    
    #[JsonProperty("rating")]
    private float $socialRating;

    public function __construct(string $name, string $email, float $socialRating){
        $this->name = $name;
        $this->email = $email;
        $this->socialRating = $socialRating;
    }
}

$json = '{
    "name": "Jiang Xina",
    "email": "china@gmail.cn",
    "rating": 999.99
}';
$user = PSON::fromJsonArrayAsClass(json_decode($json, true), User::class);
var_dump($user);

The result will be:

object(User)#2 (3) {
  ["name":"User":private]=>
  string(10) "Jiang Xina"
  ["email":"User":private]=>
  string(14) "china@gmail.cn"
  ["socialRating":"User":private]=>
  float(999.99)
}

Nested objects

If you have an object that contains another objects in properties, and you want to convert all together into JSON, just add JsonProperty attribute. Properties with that attribute will be converted into JSON. It also works versa: JSON -> object. Example:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use luverelle\pson\attributes\JsonProperty;
use luverelle\pson\PSON;

class Address{

    #[JsonProperty("post_code")]
    private int $postCode;

    #[JsonProperty("city")]
    private string $city;

    public function __construct(int $postCode, string $city){
        $this->postCode = $postCode;
        $this->city = $city;
    }
}

class Contact{

    #[JsonProperty("name")]
    private string $name;

    #[JsonProperty("address")]
    private Address $address;

    public function __construct(string $name, Address $address){
        $this->name = $name;
        $this->address = $address;
    }
}

$contact = new Contact("Elizabeth", new Address(350000, "Krasnodar"));
$jsonArray = PSON::toJsonArray($contact);
echo json_encode($jsonArray, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT) . PHP_EOL;
var_dump(PSON::fromJsonArrayAsClass($jsonArray, Contact::class));

The result will be:

{
    "name": "Elizabeth",
    "address": {
        "post_code": 350000,
        "city": "Krasnodar"
    }
}
object(Contact)#8 (2) {
  ["name":"Contact":private]=>
  string(9) "Elizabeth"
  ["address":"Contact":private]=>
  object(Address)#15 (2) {
    ["postCode":"Address":private]=>
    int(350000)
    ["city":"Address":private]=>
    string(9) "Krasnodar"
  }
}

Arrays of objects

If you want to add a JSON convertable array of objects(like User[]), ensure to add what type of object you want to convert in JsonProperty attribute like this:

<?php
class User{
    //some stuff
}
class UserManager{

    /**
     * @var User[]
     */
    #[JsonProperty("users", arrayValueClass: User::class)]
    private array $cachedUsers; //note that phpdoc isn't necessary for json, it's for type hinting in IDE
}

TODO list:

• Add more tests
• Add more customizable stuff

Requirements:

• PHP 8.0 or higher
• JSON PHP extension