Json

No Longer Maintained

This repository is no longer maintained, and is deprecated. Its use is highly discouraged.

We don't need yet another Json package, because neither there is a need for it, nor it provide a unique or useful feature. Let's focus on something that matters more, or at least on improving existing libraries, projects, etc. If you think it's a wrong decision (e.g. you are an active user of this library and can't find an alternative), please open an issue.

This repository should be considered of a showcase of what I've done. Feel free to switch to the branch develop, and guess what version 2.0.0 would look like, and think how it could ever solve a single problem.

An alternative to this library would be Webmozart Json.

What's it?

A component for your JSON data. Huh! Just that? No! Continue reading.

Why Json?

Performance

Note: Unfortunately, the library performance seems not to be scalable. A bright result of micro-optimizations. A result of focusing on what matters least. See #59 for more details.

Flexible

• Json is not only for JSON data. So what? Many types are supported, including JSON strings, arrays, objects and scalars (+ null). Resources are not supported, and won't be supported (because of the standards).
• Use methods regardless of the data type. Merging two objects? Actually.
• Do anything, even if not provided by the class, using a callable. Alternatives? Extend from the class and define your own things. For sure, it will be easy in both cases.
• Oh, what if an index does not exist? Exception. Parsing bad JSON data? Exception, again. Warnings and notices? Very rare cases.

Many Ways

Like JavaScript dots to get indexes, or native PHP arrays? Choose. Even with JavaScript-like indexes, you can pass the index to a method or you can use Json::index(). It is your decision.

Example

An example from PHPUnit source code:

function prettify(string $json): string {
    $decodedJson = \json_decode($json, true);

    if (\json_last_error()) {
        throw new Exception(
            'Cannot prettify invalid json'
        );
    }

    return \json_encode($decodedJson, \JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | \JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);
}

Looks good, but it can be really better:

// use MAChitgarha\Component\Json

function prettify(string $jsonStr): string {
    return Json::new($jsonStr)->getAsJson(\JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | \JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);
}

Advantages:

• Handling different exceptions is easier. Not just getting "Cannot prettify invalid json". Get exception message based on the error happened. Debugging will be easier.
• Less code. Looks prettier. One line. Besides, sometimes, you don't even need to define that method, use Json directly without a function overhead.

Good! What Do I Need?

Almost nothing. PHP7, the JSON extension that comes with PHP7 by default, and usually Composer.

Installing

Composer is there!

composer require machitgarha/json

Note: You can also clone the project and load the files in your own way. The recommended way is Composer, however.

Documentation

Note: The documentation is outdated, wrt to version 1.0.0+.

See the GitHub wiki.

Contribution?

Although the library is no longer maintained, but you can see contribution guidelines here.