JSON.class.php: Simple JSON export to generate nested objects

[tohagan]

When field names contain "." delimiters and a JSON | Simple export is selected, then nested objects will be generated corresponding to the structure of the fields names. The only restriction is that fields related to the same object must be sequential.

Example 2 Field Names

• name.first
• name.last
• address.0
• address.1

Generates:

[
    {
        "name": {
            "first": "Rahim",
            "last": "Wyatt"
        },
        "address": {
            "0": "Ap #496-4933 Non, Street",
            "1": "190-7424 Malesuada Street"
        }
    },
    {
        "name": {
            "first": "Emi",
            "last": "King"
        },
        "address": {
            "0": "5331 Lacinia. Avenue",
            "1": "486-7654 Nisl Road"
        }
    }
]

Example 2: 3-level nested JSON

Field names ... All "Email" type

• a
• b.c
• b.d.e
• b.d.f
• b.p.a
• b.p.b

Generates:

[
    {
        "a": "et.commodo@amet.org",
        "b": {
            "c": "vestibulum.neque.sed@nuncsedlibero.org",
            "d": {
                "e": "ac@musAeneaneget.ca",
                "f": "tellus.Suspendisse@etpedeNunc.ca"
            },
            "p": {
                "a": "est.ac@nostra.ca",
                "b": "et.tristique@rutrum.org"
            }
        }
    },
    {
        "a": "sit.amet.ante@varius.com",
        "b": {
            "c": "et@neque.net",
            "d": {
                "e": "lacus.Quisque@Nullatempor.edu",
                "f": "ac@sem.edu"
            },
            "p": {
                "a": "libero.dui.nec@sit.ca",
                "b": "nec@malesuada.com"
            }
        }
    }
]

[benkeen]

Damn @tohagan, this is brilliant! I wish I'd thought of this.

Give me a little time to check it over & I'll merge it in. Excellent idea + work.

[benkeen]

Great stuff. Merged. Technically it may introduce a little backward incompability for people using periods in their field names, but I think since it's so specific, and potentially so useful, it's well worth adding.

Also, since this is very much a hidden feature (not obvious to the user as they use the tool), what I'm going to do is add your documentation notes to the JSON export type readme file, and update the core documentation to mention it too.

Thanks again @tohagan.

[tohagan]

Glad you like it. I needed nested objects for an app I'm building and thought it good manners to thank you (by contributing) for open sourcing your wonderfully useful app.

I did consider making this ...

• address.0
• address.1

generate this ...

    "address": {
          0: "5331 Lacinia. Avenue",
          1: "486-7654 Nisl Road"
    }

or maybe even this ....

    "address": [
          "5331 Lacinia. Avenue",
          "486-7654 Nisl Road"
    ]

This would be a breaking change and bit more work of course.

[benkeen]

I was thinking something along those lines, too - like address[0] would signify an array. Something for down the road. :)

[tohagan]

2 more observations ...

1. You could make this feature more obvious in the UI by offering it as a different JSON export option (keeping the old one and add this as a new export plugin).
2. I noticed that the Language exports might also want nesting like this (Javascript, C#, Ruby, Perl etc). The rendering algorithm I used might come in handy for these.

[conradhagemans]

I guess even for CSV export we could use this. Exporting the related data to a separate file.