PON or “PHP Object Notation” Is Already Here

Feb 08

PON or “PHP Object Notation” Is Already Here

JSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is fairly popular.
This is just my modest take on a ‘PHP Object Notation’ implementation.
Note that it is meant to follow how your mind works rather than being syntactically correct; therefore, associative arrays are used in a loose manner where you have to worry about associative syntax as little as possible.
Basically, type away until your object is fully described.

Here is a notation sample:

PHP

array(
        'root level' => array(
                'sublevel 1' => array(
                        'sublevel 2' => 'sublevel 3',
                ),
        )
);

PHP

array(
        ‘root level’ => array(
                ’sublevel 1′ => array(
                        ’sublevel 2′ => ’sublevel 3′,
                ),
        )
); 

.
This syntax can then be used the same way JSON is used, using eval. Here is how and you will immediately notice how the eval() syntax has to differ from the JavaScript one:

PHP

$remote_str = << array(
                ’sublevel 1′ => array(
                        ’sublevel 2′ => ’sublevel 3′,
                ),
        )
);
EOB;
// …
eval(’$local_str=’.$remote_str.’;');

PHP

$remote_str = <<<EOB
    array(
        ‘root level’ => array(
                ’sublevel 1′ => array(
                        ’sublevel 2′ => ’sublevel 3′,
                ),
        )
);
EOB;
// …
eval(‘$local_str=’.$remote_str.‘;’); 

.
Feels a bit clumsy. Fortunately, starting with PHP4, if you are not too sad about introducing a statement in your remote string, you can rewrite it like this:

PHP

$remote_str = << array(
                ’sublevel 1′ => array(
                        ’sublevel 2′ => ’sublevel 3′,
                ),
        )
);
EOB;
// …
$local_str = eval($remote_str);

PHP

$remote_str = <<<EOB
return array(
        ‘root level’ => array(
                ’sublevel 1′ => array(
                        ’sublevel 2′ => ’sublevel 3′,
                ),
        )
);
EOB;
// …
$local_str = eval($remote_str); 

.
Better, isn’t it?

In this last listing, you will find the very simple code I wrote to traverse the object. Note that I invoke a callback for every element, otherwise this code would not be very helpful.

Note that this is just a concept for something I needed to throw together quickly therefore there are some limitations; for instance, you cannot have numeric keys since in this context their “keyness” is ignored and even feared.

PHP

$children)
        {
                if(!is_numeric($level))
                {
                        $my_uid = $callback($level, $padding, $uid);
                        traverse_tree($callback, $children, $curdepth + 2, $my_uid);
                }
                else
                {
                        $callback($children, $padding, $uid);
                }
        }
}

function do_something($name, $padding, $uid)
{
        $iid = 0; // Bogus value
        print $padding.$name." ($iid)n";
        return $iid;
}

// ———————————————————–
// Here we go
// ———————————————————–
if(count($argv) != 2)
        die("nSyntax: ".$PHP_SELF." ‘root_node_name’nn");
$rootnodename = &$argv[1];

$INS = array(
        $rootnodename => array(
                ‘Bikes’ => array(
                        ‘Yamaha’ => ‘Fz’,
                        ‘Honda’,
                        ‘Norton’
                        ),
                ‘Trikes’,
                ‘Cars’ => array(
                        ‘Chevrolet’ => array(
                                ‘Corvette’ => array(’Z06′, ‘Convertible’, ‘Coupe’),
                                ‘Camaro’,
                                ‘Jimmy’
                                ),
                        ‘Ford’ => array(
                                ‘Mustang’ => array(’GT’, ‘Premium’, ‘Shelby’, ‘Other’=>’Roush’),
                                ‘Explorer’,
                                ‘Crown Victoria’
                                ),
                        ‘Chrysler’ => array(
                                ‘Dodge’ => ‘Charger’,
                                ‘300X’,
                                ‘Le Baron’
                                ),
                        )
        )
);

traverse_tree(do_something, $INS, 0, 1);

print "DONEnn";
?>

PHP

<?php
function traverse_tree($callback, $curlevel, $curdepth, $uid)
{
        $depthstr = ‘——————————————————————————’;
        $padding = substr($depthstr, 0, $curdepth);
        if(!is_array($curlevel))
        {
                $callback($curlevel, $padding, $uid);
                return;
        }
        foreach($curlevel as $level=>$children)
        {
                if(!is_numeric($level))
                {
                        $my_uid = $callback($level, $padding, $uid);
                        traverse_tree($callback, $children, $curdepth + 2, $my_uid);
                }
                else
                {
                        $callback($children, $padding, $uid);
                }
        }
}
 
function do_something($name, $padding, $uid)
{
        $iid = 0; // Bogus value
        print $padding.$name." ($iid)\n";
        return $iid;
}
 
// ———————————————————–
// Here we go
// ———————————————————–
if(count($argv) != 2)
        die("\nSyntax: ".$PHP_SELF." ‘root_node_name’\n\n");
$rootnodename = &$argv[1];
 
$INS = array(
        $rootnodename => array(
                ‘Bikes’ => array(
                        ‘Yamaha’ => ‘Fz’,
                        ‘Honda’,
                        ‘Norton’
                        ),
                ‘Trikes’,
                ‘Cars’ => array(
                        ‘Chevrolet’ => array(
                                ‘Corvette’ => array(‘Z06′, ‘Convertible’, ‘Coupe’),
                                ‘Camaro’,
                                ‘Jimmy’
                                ),
                        ‘Ford’ => array(
                                ‘Mustang’ => array(‘GT’, ‘Premium’, ‘Shelby’, ‘Other’=>‘Roush’),
                                ‘Explorer’,
                                ‘Crown Victoria’
                                ),
                        ‘Chrysler’ => array(
                                ‘Dodge’ => ‘Charger’,
                                ‘300X’,
                                ‘Le Baron’
                                ),
                        )
        )
);
 
traverse_tree(do_something, $INS, 0, 1);
 
print "DONE\n\n";
?> 

.
Invoke with:

php my_php_script.php "Vehicles"

php my_php_script.php "Vehicles"

.
“What is this $iid variable?” you may ask.
You will notice that this piece of code is particularly convenient if you want to add a whole tree structure to your database. Say the you are using MySQL and want to create categories and sub-categories, using the column ‘pid’ as a category’s parent id. You would rewrite do_something:

PHP

function do_something($name, $padding, $uid)
{
        mysql_query("INSERT INTO my_cat_table(pid, title) VALUES({$uid}, '{$name}')");
        $iid = mysql_insert_id();
        print $padding.$name." ($iid)n";
        return $iid;
}

PHP

function do_something($name, $padding, $uid)
{
        mysql_query("INSERT INTO my_cat_table(pid, title) VALUES({$uid}, ‘{$name}’)");
        $iid = mysql_insert_id();
        print $padding.$name." ($iid)\n";
        return $iid;
} 

Voila!

Sphere: Related Content

2 Responses to “PON or “PHP Object Notation” Is Already Here”

(仮)秋元がサボってないかみんなで見張ろうブログ » 割れ目でPON! Says:
February 8th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
[…] 「evalしてJavascriptオブジェクトになるデータ形式がJSONなんだろ、そんなのPHPでもできるぜ!」ということでPON(PHP Object Notation)です。 […]
DyncGlync Says:
May 7th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
thats it, guy

Clic!Dev, ‘Tate, and many more projects!

PON or “PHP Object Notation” Is Already Here

2 Responses to “PON or “PHP Object Notation” Is Already Here”

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