Parse JSON-like markup

Question

honestly i don't know what markup is this (i would like to know if this markup have a name). What is easyest way to parse structures like this? i have a lot of them in txt file.

unlockType BirthdayCake {
       // Don't delete
    commonName      "Birthday Cake"
    autoTag
    category        Item
    path            models/
    timedExclusive  1
    descSymbol      BirthdayCakeDesc
    dispSymbol      BirthdayCakeDisp
    flairCfg        "Cake/Idle.aaf mat_BirthdayCake< /scale 1.5 /animation Cake/Idle.aaf 0 looping 0.8  /followDist 3.0 /moveSlew 0.0666  /moveVelThresh 10.0 /animEaseTime 1.0 /zOffRobot 2.7 /rotX 20.0 /zSpinDef bone_spinA 80.0"
    //OnInspectOrUnlock Menus previewInit Cake/Idle.aaf BirthdayCake< /scale 1.5 /animation Cake/Idle.aaf 0 looping 0.8 /rotSpeed 30 /pos 3.5 0 1 /scaleMult 1.0
    property        BirthdaySpirit          10
}

Answer 1

$str = "unlockType BirthdayCake {
       // Don't delete
    commonName      \"Birthday Cake\"
    autoTag
    category        Item
    path            models/
    timedExclusive  1
    descSymbol      BirthdayCakeDesc
    dispSymbol      BirthdayCakeDisp
    flairCfg        \"Cake/Idle.aaf mat_BirthdayCake< /scale 1.5 /animation Cake/Idle.aaf 0 looping 0.8  /followDist 3.0 /moveSlew 0.0666  /moveVelThresh 10.0 /animEaseTime 1.0 /zOffRobot 2.7 /rotX 20.0 /zSpinDef bone_spinA 80.0\"
    //OnInspectOrUnlock Menus previewInit Cake/Idle.aaf BirthdayCake< /scale 1.5 /animation Cake/Idle.aaf 0 looping 0.8 /rotSpeed 30 /pos 3.5 0 1 /scaleMult 1.0
    property        BirthdaySpirit          10
}

unlockType PetFish3 {
        commonName              \"Lionfish\"
        autoTag
        category                Pet
        path                    flair/
        descSymbol              PetFish3Desc
        dispSymbol              PetFish3Disp
        flairCfg                \"pet flair/PetFishes/PetFish3.amf mat_PetFishes< /scale 1.1 /animation flair/PetFishes/idle3.aaf 0 looping 0.45 /moveAnim flair/PetFishes/fly1.aaf 1 looping 1.62  /followDist 3.0 /moveSlew 0.045 /moveVelThresh 8.0 /animEaseTime 0.45 /zOffRobot 2.6 /rotX 15.0 /moveSlew 0.05 /turnToMove 230\"
}
";

function parseThis($text)
{
    $types = array();
    preg_match_all('#(unlockType [^\{]+{.+?\n\s*})#s',$text,$matches);
    foreach($matches[1] as $str)
    {
        $typeName = preg_replace('#^[^ ]+ ([^ ]+).*#s','$1',$str);
        $contents = preg_split('#(\r?\n)+#',$str);
        $contents = array_map('trim',$contents);
        array_pop($contents);
        array_shift($contents);
        $data = array();
        foreach($contents as $line)
        {
            if(substr($line,0,2)=='//') continue;
            $parts = preg_split("#(\t+|\s{3,})#",$line);
            $title = array_shift($parts);
            $partC = count($parts);
            $data[$title] = $partC==1 ? $parts[0] : ($partC==0 ? '' : $parts);
        }
        $types[$typeName] = $data;
    }
    return $types;
}
$types = parseThis($str);
echo '<pre>'.print_r($types,true).'</pre>';

Output:

Array
(
    [BirthdayCake] => Array
        (
            [commonName] => "Birthday Cake"
            [autoTag] => 
            [category] => Item
            [path] => models/
            [timedExclusive] => 1
            [descSymbol] => BirthdayCakeDesc
            [dispSymbol] => BirthdayCakeDisp
            [flairCfg] => "Cake/Idle.aaf mat_BirthdayCake< /scale 1.5 /animation Cake/Idle.aaf 0 looping 0.8  /followDist 3.0 /moveSlew 0.0666  /moveVelThresh 10.0 /animEaseTime 1.0 /zOffRobot 2.7 /rotX 20.0 /zSpinDef bone_spinA 80.0"
            [property] => Array
                (
                    [0] => BirthdaySpirit
                    [1] => 10
                )

        )

    [PetFish3] => Array
        (
            [commonName] => "Lionfish"
            [autoTag] => 
            [category] => Pet
            [path] => flair/
            [descSymbol] => PetFish3Desc
            [dispSymbol] => PetFish3Disp
            [flairCfg] => "pet flair/PetFishes/PetFish3.amf mat_PetFishes< /scale 1.1 /animation flair/PetFishes/idle3.aaf 0 looping 0.45 /moveAnim flair/PetFishes/fly1.aaf 1 looping 1.62  /followDist 3.0 /moveSlew 0.045 /moveVelThresh 8.0 /animEaseTime 0.45 /zOffRobot 2.6 /rotX 15.0 /moveSlew 0.05 /turnToMove 230"
        )

)

Rough Explanation

• Use preg_match_all to find each block (unlockType someRandomText { .... })
• Loop through each result of preg_match_all (each block) to parse the blocks individually
  • Split the contents of the {..} by newlines and then map each result to trim() to remove any leading and trailing spaces/tabs
    • Split each line by 3 or more spaces (as proper tabs don't seem to have been used)
    • use the first result of the split as the key of our array, then push the rest of the split into the value