#29. Kevin on 16 March 2009

@ Thomas: I will review your comment soon over at http://phpjs.org . Please bear with me, and use that new site for comments on PHP.JS from now on.

Thanks a lot!!

#28. Thomas on 08 March 2009

Works fine with php 5.2.0.
But doesn't work with php 5.2.6 ! Php cannot unserialize the string.

Any known issues about this ?

#27. Kevin on 30 December 2008

@ Garagoth: Well noticed. That doesn't make any sense at all.

#26. Garagoth on 18 December 2008

Hm, an interesting line of code, not sure how it is supposed to work:

if (ktype == "function" && ktype == "object") {
    continue; 
}

Cheers,
Garagoth.

#25. Kevin on 01 December 2008

@ Andrej Pavlovic: Thanks man!

#24. Andrej Pavlovic on 27 November 2008

Code above has a major scoping bug. The global "key" variable is used in two parts of the function and as a result nested arrays do not serialize properly.

To fix the bug add "var key;" before both for loops.

Otherwise thanks for the function.

#23. Kevin on 21 September 2008

@ Dino: I've committed your changes! Thank you.

#22. Dino on 19 September 2008

I also forgot this line of code too.

case "function": val = ""; break;

#21. dino on 19 September 2008

woops I don't think my code showed up properly.

for (key in mixed_value) {
    var ktype = _getType(mixed_value[key]);
    
    //alert(key + ' type is ' + ktype);
    if (ktype != "function" && ktype != "object") {
      okey = (key.match(/^[0-9]+$/) ? parseInt(key) : key);
      vals += serialize(okey) +
        serialize(mixed_value[key]);
      count++;
    }
            }

#20. dino on 19 September 2008

serialize doesn't work well with mootools since mootools adds or extends the array object with functions which serialize picks up on and tries to translate into a string.

At least it broke my code when I included mootools.

I fixed it by having serialize not try to translate objects or functions. It doesn't seem like functions are being handled anyway.



[CODE="javascript"]
case "function":
val = "";
break;

for (key in mixed_value) {
var ktype = _getType(mixed_value[key]);

//alert(key + ' type is ' + ktype);
if (ktype != "function" && ktype != "object") {
okey = (key.match(/^[0-9]+$/) ? parseInt(key) : key);
vals += serialize(okey) +
serialize(mixed_value[key]);
count++;
}
}

#19. Ren on 09 September 2008

Sorry plz, it was my fault.
I used htmlspecialchars($_REQUEST), so the variable with serialized string encoded too.
Function works fine :) thx

#18. Kevin on 09 September 2008

@ Ren: Can you please provide a print_r of the array in CODE blocks that you are trying to serialize? We need your import to improve this function. Thanks!

#17. Ren on 09 September 2008

This function does not work properly !!! PHP can't unserialize it...

#16. d3x on 31 May 2008

@ Kevin: Arpad Ray's implementation uses "eval" and "eval is evil"(http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlippert/archive/2003/11/01/53329.aspx)

#15. Kevin on 31 May 2008

@ d3x: Do you think that this function beats Arpad Ray's implementation?

#14. d3x on 30 May 2008

For every other person that needs an unserialize implementation:

function unserialize(data){
  function error(type, msg, filename, line){throw new window[type](msg, filename, line);}
  function read_until(data, offset, stopchar){
    var buf = [];
    var char = data.slice(offset, offset + 1);
    var i = 2;
    while(char != stopchar){
      if((i+offset) > data.length){
        error('Error', 'Invalid');
      }
      buf.push(char);
      char = data.slice(offset + (i - 1),offset + i);
      i += 1;
    }
    return [buf.length, buf.join('')];
  };
  function read_chars(data, offset, length){
    buf = [];
    for(var i = 0;i < length;i++){
      var char = data.slice(offset + (i - 1),offset + i);
      buf.push(char);
    }
    return [buf.length, buf.join('')];
  };
  function _unserialize(data, offset){
    if(!offset) offset = 0;
    var buf = [];
    var dtype = (data.slice(offset, offset + 1)).toLowerCase();
    
    var dataoffset = offset + 2;
    var typeconvert = new Function('x', 'return x');
    var chars = 0;
    var datalength = 0;
    
    switch(dtype){
      case "i":
        typeconvert = new Function('x', 'return parseInt(x)');
        var readData = read_until(data, dataoffset, ';');
        var chars = readData[0];
        var readdata = readData[1];
        dataoffset += chars + 1;
      break;
      case "b":
        typeconvert = new Function('x', 'return (parseInt(x) == 1)');
        var readData = read_until(data, dataoffset, ';');
        var chars = readData[0];
        var readdata = readData[1];
        dataoffset += chars + 1;
      break;
      case "d":
        typeconvert = new Function('x', 'return parseFloat(x)');
        var readData = read_until(data, dataoffset, ';');
        var chars = readData[0];
        var readdata = readData[1];
        dataoffset += chars + 1;
      break;
      case "n":
        readdata = null;
      break;
      case "s":
        var ccount = read_until(data, dataoffset, ':');
        var chars = ccount[0];
        var stringlength = ccount[1];
        dataoffset += chars + 2;
        
        var readData = read_chars(data, dataoffset+1, parseInt(stringlength));
        var chars = readData[0];
        var readdata = readData[1];
        dataoffset += chars + 2;
        if(chars != parseInt(stringlength) && chars != readdata.length){
          error('SyntaxError', 'String length mismatch');
        }
      break;
      case "a":
        var readdata = {};
        
        var keyandchars = read_until(data, dataoffset, ':');
        var chars = keyandchars[0];
        var keys = keyandchars[1];
        dataoffset += chars + 2;
        
        for(var i = 0;i < parseInt(keys);i++){
          var kprops = _unserialize(data, dataoffset);
          var kchars = kprops[1];
          var key = kprops[2];
          dataoffset += kchars;
          
          var vprops = _unserialize(data, dataoffset);
          var vchars = vprops[1];
          var value = vprops[2];
          dataoffset += vchars;
          
          readdata[key] = value;
        }
        
        dataoffset += 1;
      break;
      default:
        error('SyntaxError', 'Unknown / Unhandled data type(s): ' + dtype);
      break;
    }
    return [dtype, dataoffset - offset, typeconvert(readdata)];
  };
  return _unserialize(data, 0)[2];
}

Code translated from: http://hurring.com/scott/code/python/serialize/

#13. Kevin on 02 March 2008

@ Andrea Giammarchi: Impressive code Andrea! I will look into this and if I use (parts of) it, I will credit you accordingly! Thanks

#12. Andrea Giammarchi on 02 March 2008

two years ago, 15.000 users, about zero problems:
http://www.devpro.it/javascript_id_102.html

It's able to save correctly UTF-8 strings as well.

... [more] Cheers

#11. Kevin on 02 March 2008

@ Doug: About unserialize, just now I found a very good javascript unserialize function by Arpad Ray. I've included the function in this project. If Arpad doesn't approve however (I've sent him an email), we will still have to write it ourselves.

#10. Kevin on 28 February 2008

@ Doug: Not yet, so feel free!

#9. Doug on 28 February 2008

Have you started to compile a function for unserialize yet?

#8. Franck Chionna on 20 February 2008

hello,

i d like to serialize a window object by a js var that contain window.open , thus to keep in memory the window open if the php page is refreshed. i tried to use your code but it says js error "too much recursion... any suggestion ? thanks and congratulation for the work done

#7. Ates Goral on 23 January 2008

I'll take a look at why serialize() is looping.

#6. Kevin on 23 January 2008

@ Ates Goral: Example 14 is giving: too much recursion after implementing the new get_class function in serialize

#5. Kevin on 23 January 2008

@ Ates Goral: Works like a charm, I will build this in serialize and add it as a dependency.

About your php-strict/javascript-flexible question. I think we should stay with PHP as close as possible. Hopefully this will provide consistency & clarity for end users. And interoperability between php-js-function throughout the project. This approach should also ensure that no extra function documentation has to be written because PHP's function manual will (in most cases) be valid.

#4. Ates Goral on 22 January 2008

Here's get_class(). I think serialize() now can re-use this one instead of the local getObjectClass() implementation.

I've added the extra instanceof checks solely to match PHP behaviour. They can be removed since JavaScript has no problem with getting class names for simple types or arrays/functions etc. This brings up the question: Are we trying to mimic PHP behaviour as closely as possible or is it all right to introduce additional functionality brought forth by the flexibility of JavaScript?

function get_class(obj) {
    // *     example 1: get_class(new (function MyClass() {}));
    // *     returns 1: "MyClass"
    // *     example 2: get_class({});
    // *     returns 2: "Object"
    // *     example 3: get_class([]);
    // *     returns 3: false
    // *     example 4: get_class(42);
    // *     returns 4: false
    // *     example 5: get_class(window);
    // *     returns 5: false
    // *     example 6: get_class(function MyFunction() {});
    // *     returns 6: false
    
    if (obj instanceof Object && !(obj instanceof Array) &&
        !(obj instanceof Function) && obj.constructor) {
        var arr = obj.constructor.toString().match(/function\s*(\w+)/);
 
        if (arr && arr.length == 2) {
            return arr[1];
        }
    }
    
    return false;
}

#3. Kevin on 22 January 2008

@ Ates Goral: Thanks, I've updated the function.

#2. Ates Goral on 21 January 2008

Here are some additional test cases:

//    *     example 1: serialize(42);
//    *     returns 1: i:42;
//    *     example 2: serialize(3.14);
//    *     returns 2: d:3.14;
//    *     example 3: serialize("foo");
//    *     returns 3: s:3:"foo";
//    *     example 4: serialize(true);
//    *     returns 4: b:1;
//    *     example 5: serialize(new Object());
//    *     returns 5: O:6:"Object":0:{}
//    *     example 6: serialize(new (function MyClass() {}));
//    *     returns 6: O:7:"MyClass":0:{}
//    *     example 7: serialize(new (function MyClass() { this.prop = 42 }));
//    *     returns 7: O:7:"MyClass":1:{s:4:"prop";i:42;}
//    *     example 8: serialize(new Array());
//    *     returns 8: a:0:{}
//    *     example 9: serialize([1, 3]);
//    *     returns 9: a:2:{i:0;i:1;i:1;i:3;}
//    *     example 10: serialize(undefined);
//    *     returns 10: N;
//    *     example 11: serialize(null);
//    *     returns 11: N;
//    *     example 12: serialize(NaN);
//    *     returns 12: false;
//    *     example 13: serialize(Infinity);
//    *     returns 13: false;
//    *     example 14: serialize(window);
//    *     returns 14: false;
//    *     example 15: serialize(Array);
//    *     returns 15: false;
//    *     example 16: serialize(function doit() {});
//    *     returns 16: false;
//    *     example 17: serialize(/./);
//    *     returns 17: false;

#1. Ates Goral on 21 January 2008

Hi Kevin,

Here are a few improvements to what I originally had:

For Array detection, instead of:

("length" in mixed_val)

it's nicer to say:

(mixed_val instanceof Array)

Also, an additional check can be added to handle the NaN and Infinite values:

case "number":
        if (mixed_val == NaN || mixed_val == Infinity)
        {
            return false;
        }
        ...