Module PHP
In: lib/php_serialize.rb

PHP serialize() and unserialize() workalikes

Release History: 

 1.0.0 - 2003-06-02 - First release.
 1.0.1 - 2003-06-16 - Minor bugfixes.
 1.0.2 - 2004-09-17 - Switch all {}'s to explicit Hash.new's.
 1.1.0 - 2009-04-01 - Pass assoc to recursive calls (thanks to Edward Speyer).
                    - Serialize Symbol like String.
                    - Add testsuite.
                    - Instantiate auto-generated Structs properly (thanks
                      to Philip Hallstrom).
                    - Unserialize arrays properly in assoc mode.
                    - Add PHP session support (thanks to TJ Vanderpoel).
                    - Release as tarball and gem.

See www.php.net/serialize and www.php.net/unserialize for details on the PHP side of all this.

Methods

serialize   serialize_session   unserialize  

Public Class methods

serialize(var, assoc = false)

string = PHP.serialize(mixed var[, bool assoc])

Returns a string representing the argument in a form PHP.unserialize and PHP‘s unserialize() should both be able to load.

Array, Hash, Fixnum, Float, True/FalseClass, NilClass, String and Struct are supported; as are objects which support the to_assoc method, which returns an array of the form [[‘attr_name’, ‘value’]..]. Anything else will raise a TypeError.

If ‘assoc’ is specified, Array‘s who‘s first element is a two value array will be assumed to be an associative array, and will be serialized as a PHP associative array rather than a multidimensional array.

serialize_session(var, assoc = false)

string = PHP.serialize_session(mixed var[, bool assoc])

Like PHP.serialize, but only accepts a Hash or associative Array as the root type. The results are returned in PHP session format.

unserialize(string, classmap = nil, assoc = false)

mixed = PHP.unserialize(string serialized, [hash classmap, [bool assoc]])

Returns an object containing the reconstituted data from serialized.

If a PHP array (associative; like an ordered hash) is encountered, it scans the keys; if they‘re all incrementing integers counting from 0, it‘s unserialized as an Array, otherwise it‘s unserialized as a Hash. Note: this will lose ordering. To avoid this, specify assoc=true, and it will be unserialized as an associative array: [[key,value],…]

If a serialized object is encountered, the hash ‘classmap’ is searched for the class name (as a symbol). Since PHP classnames are not case-preserving, this must be a .capitalize()d representation. The value is expected to be the class itself; i.e. something you could call .new on.

If it‘s not found in ‘classmap’, the current constant namespace is searched, and failing that, a new Struct(classname) is generated, with the arguments for .new specified in the same order PHP provided; since PHP uses hashes to represent attributes, this should be the same order they‘re specified in PHP, but this is untested.

each serialized attribute is sent to the new object using the respective {attribute}=() method; you‘ll get a NameError if the method doesn‘t exist.

Array, Hash, Fixnum, Float, True/FalseClass, NilClass and String should be returned identically (i.e. foo == PHP.unserialize(PHP.serialize(foo)) for these types); Struct should be too, provided it‘s in the namespace Module.const_get within unserialize() can see, or you gave it the same name in the Struct.new(), otherwise you should provide it in classmap.

Note: StringIO is required for unserialize(); it‘s loaded as needed

[Validate]