Pherialize

Description

Pherialize is a small library allowing serializing Java objects into the PHP serializing format and unserializing data from this format back into Java objects.

So with Pherialize you can serialize PHP objects and unserialize them into Java objects and vice versa. With a similiar implementation in JavaScript you can also use Pherialize to transfer data between Java and JavaScript if you like.

Up to now Pherialize can serialize the following Java data types:

• null
• Boolean
• String
• Char
• Byte
• Integer
• Short
• Long
• Float
• Double
• List
• Map
• Arrays
• Serializable (Through Reflection API)
• Mixed
• Enums (Value used as string)

The Unserializer supports the following PHP data types:

• null
• boolean
• string
• int
• double
• array

References are supported, too. This allows you to serialize and unserialize even complex types with circular references in it.

License

Copyright (c) 2006 Klaus Reimer k@ailis.de

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Download

The JAR can be downloaded from my Maven Repository or if you are using Maven you can simply add it as a dependency:

<repositories>
  <repository>
    <id>ailis-releases</id>
    <name>Ailis Maven Releases</name>
    <url>http://nexus.ailis.de/content/groups/public/</url>
  </repository>
</repositories>

<dependencies>
  <dependency>   
    <groupId>de.ailis.pherialize</groupId>
    <artifactId>pherialize</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.1</version>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

Usage

How to serialize data

For serializing a Java object into a PHP serialization format string you just use the static method Pherialize.serialize(). Just pass the object you want to serialize to this method and you get a string in return which you can then unserialize in PHP.

Example:

List list;

list = new ArrayList();
list.add("A string");
list.add(Integer.valueOf(12345));
list.add(Boolean.TRUE);
System.out.println(Pherialize.serialize(list));

The result is printed to stdout and looks like this:

a:3:{i:0;s:8:"A string";i:1;i:12345;i:2;b:1;}

Now you can use this string in PHP to unserialize it back into a PHP array:

$data = unserialize('a:3:{i:0;s:8:"A string";i:1;i:12345;i:2;b:1;}');
var_dump($data);

Result is a PHP array with exactly the data and types you have added to the array with Java:

array(3) {
  [0]=>
  string(8) "A string"
  [1]=>
  int(12345)
  [2]=>
  bool(true)
}

How to unserialize data

Let's assume you have serialized the PHP array from the previous example and you have stored this serialized string in the variable data. For unserializing and printing the value you just have to use the Pherialize.unserialize() method.

Example:

MixedArray list;

list = Pherialize.unserialize(data).toArray();
System.out.println("Item 1: " + list.getString(0));
System.out.println("Item 2: " + list.getInteger(1));
System.out.println("Item 3: " + list.getBoolean(2));

The correct result printed to stdout is this:

Item 1: A string
Item 2: 12345
Item 3: true

Types

Because the data types in PHP are different to the types in Java conversion is not always possible without switching to a different data type. If for example you serialize a Java Byte then you will get a PHP int because PHP does only knows the number types int and double. So when you unserialize this int back into Java then you will end up with an Integer and not with a Byte. The same problem comes up with Long objects. Pherialize serializes a Long into a int if it fits an Integer. Otherwise it's serialized into a double

To make life easier while unserializing PHP data into Java all PHP data types are wrapped by an object of type Mixed. From this object you can convert the data easily in whatever you need (as long as the conversion makes sense).

Here is a complete list of the conversions performed when serializing Java data types and unserializing them in PHP:

Java class	PHP type
null	null
Boolean	boolean
Character	string
Byte	int
Short	int
Integer	int
Long	int or double (Depending on how large the value is)
Float	double
Double	double
String	string
Collection	array
Map	array
Serializable	object
Enum	Value used as a string
Mixed	Depends on the raw type in the Mixed wrapper

And here is a list of performed conversion when you unserialize PHP data in Java. But note that you will never get in touch with these conversions because it's completely hidden by the .

PHP type	Java class
null	null
boolean	Boolean
int	Integer
double	Double
string	String
array	Map