json_decode to custom class

Question

Is it possible to decode a json string to an object other than stdClass?

Answer 1

Not automatically. But you can do it the old fashioned route.

$data = json_decode($json, true);  $class = new Whatever(); foreach ($data as $key => $value) $class->{$key} = $value; 

Or alternatively, you could make that more automatic:

class Whatever {     public function set($data) {         foreach ($data AS $key => $value) $this->{$key} = $value;     } }  $class = new Whatever(); $class->set($data); 

Edit: getting a little fancier:

class JSONObject {     public function __construct($json = false) {         if ($json) $this->set(json_decode($json, true));     }      public function set($data) {         foreach ($data AS $key => $value) {             if (is_array($value)) {                 $sub = new JSONObject;                 $sub->set($value);                 $value = $sub;             }             $this->{$key} = $value;         }     } }  // These next steps aren't necessary. I'm just prepping test data. $data = array(     "this" => "that",     "what" => "who",     "how" => "dy",     "multi" => array(         "more" => "stuff"     ) ); $jsonString = json_encode($data);  // Here's the sweetness. $class = new JSONObject($jsonString); print_r($class); 

Answer 2

We built JsonMapper to map JSON objects onto our own model classes automatically. It works fine with nested/child objects.

It only relies on docblock type information for mapping, which most class properties have anyway:

<?php $mapper = new JsonMapper(); $contactObject = $mapper->map(     json_decode(file_get_contents('http://example.org/contact.json')),     new Contact() ); ?>