jurjean/spray-serializer

SpraySerializer

Fast and easy serialization and deserialization of php objects., _(*1)

, _(*2)

Internals

Serialization is performed by attaching to a specific class scope using the Closure::bind method. To keep things fast, reflection is only used while generating the serialization code., _(*3)

How to use

Let's start with a class to serialize. Note that the annotations hint the serializer, and that they're required for deserializing objects., _(*4)

/**
 * Person
 */
class Person
{
    /**
     * @var string
     */
    private $name;

    /**
     * @var Address
     */
    private $address;

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

/**
 * Address
 */
class Address
{
    /**
     * @var string
     */
    private $street;

    public function __construct($street)
    {
        $this->street = (string) $street;
    }
}

Then we'll initialize the serializer., _(*5)

$serializer = new Serializer();
$serializer->attach(
    new ObjectListener(
        new SerializerLocator(
            new SerializerRegistry(),
            new ObjectSerializerGenerator(
                new AnnotationBackedPropertyInfo()
            ),
            new ArrayCache('Serializer')
        )
    )
);

Now we can serialize almost any object to an array and back to an object., _(*6)

$data = $serializer->serialize(new Person('Name', new Address('Street')));
var_dump($data);
// array(2) {
//   'name' =>
//   string(4) "Name"
//   'address' =>
//   array(1) {
//     'street' =>
//     string(6) "Street"
//   }
// }


$object = $serializer->deserialize('Person', $data);
var_dump($object);
// class Person#8 (2) {
//   private $name =>
//   string(4) "Name"
//   private $address =>
//   class Address#18 (1) {
//     private $street =>
//     string(6) "Street"
//   }
// }

Supported annotations

As the example above shows, the serializer uses default docblock annotations to determine the serialization strategy. The following annotations are supported:, _(*7)

class SerializeMe
{
    /**
     * @var string
     */
    private $string;

    /**
     * @var int
     */
    private $int;

    /**
     * @var integer
     */
    private $integer;

    /**
     * @var bool
     */
    private $bool;

    /**
     * @var boolean
     */
    private $boolean;

    /**
     * @var float
     */
    private $float;

    /**
     * @var double
     */
    private $double;

    /**
     * @var array
     */
    private $array;

    /**
     * @var Object
     */
    private $object;

    /**
     * @var string[]
     */
    private $stringArray;

    /**
     * @var Object[]
     */
    private $objectArray;

    /**
     * @var array<string>
     */
    private $stringArrayJavaStyle;

    /**
     * @var array<Object>
     */
    private $objectArrayJavaStyle;
}

Almost any object

There're some limitations to the implemented serialization method. For instance, deserializing a DateTime(Immutable) object is not possible. For this reason, specialized serializers are added. You'll need to add these to the SerializerRegistry in your application bootstrap like so:, _(*8)

$registry = new SerializerRegistry();
$registry->add(new DateTimeSerializer());
$registry->add(new DateTimeImmutableSerializer());
$registry->add(new StdClassSerializer());

$serializer = new Serializer();
$serializer->attach(
    new ObjectListener(
        new SerializerLocator(
            $registry,
            new ObjectSerializerGenerator(
                new AnnotationBackedPropertyInfo()
            ),
            new ArrayCache('Serializer')
        )
    )
);

Inheritance support

In order to support object inheritance (de)serialization, just the annotations is not enough. The ObjectTypeListener is required to enable this functionality:, _(*9)

$serializer = new Serializer();
$serializer->attach(
    new ObjectTypeListener()
);
$serializer->attach(
    new ObjectListener(
        new SerializerLocator(
            new SerializerRegistry(),
            new ObjectSerializerGenerator(
                new AnnotationBackedPropertyInfo()
            ),
            new ArrayCache('Serializer')
        )
    )
);

Note: Enabling this feature results in your data populated with '__type' => 'ClassName'., _(*10)

Encryption support

When your application requires encryption you'll have to attach the EncryptionListener:, _(*11)

$blockCipher = BlockCipher::factory('mcrypt', ['algo' => 'aes']);
$blockCipher->setKey('5eDCZRmyX8s7nbgV9f6pVrmRISdc5t8L');

$serializer = new Serializer();
$serializer->attach(
    new EncryptionListener(
        new EncryptorLocator(
            new EncryptorGenerator(new AnnotationBackedPropertyInfo()),
            new ArrayCache('Encryptor')
        ),
        $blockCipher
    )
);
$serializer->attach(
    new ObjectListener(
        new SerializerLocator(
            new SerializerRegistry(),
            new ObjectSerializerGenerator(
                new AnnotationBackedPropertyInfo()
            ),
            new ArrayCache('Serializer')
        )
    )
);

Caching methods

The library provides two methods of caching: array and file. The array cache is primarily useful for testing/development purposes. For production however, you're better off using the FileCache., _(*12)

The file cache actually writes the generated serialization code to plain php files for later use (and therefore automatically cached in op-code cache)., _(*13)

Below is how you'd bootstrap the file cache for the serializer:, _(*14)

use Symfony\Component\Filesystem\Filesystem;

$serializer = new Serializer();
$serializer->attach(
    new ObjectListener(
        new SerializerLocator(
            new SerializerRegistry(),
            new ObjectSerializerGenerator(
                new AnnotationBackedPropertyInfo()
            ),
            new FileCache(new Filesystem(), '/path/to/cache/directory', 'Serializer')
        )
    )
);