Simple JSON for PHP

Introduction

Simple JSON for PHP simplify the json_encode function. Instead of creating a Stdclass and then json_encode it, send, headers and echo the json, you can simply create the object and use $json->send();.

Pros:

• Easy: As simple as a Stdclass, bundled functions.
• Fast: JSON are encoded with the native json_encode()
• Reliable: Headers are sent automatically
• Complete: You can add objects, properties or arrays
• Callback/Variable or simply a JSON option
• JSONP compatible
• JQuery compatible

Cons:

• Optimized for objects because JSON is an object notation.

Usage

<?php

    include('../includes/json.php');
  
    use \Simple\json;
    
    $json = new json();
  
    // Objects to send (fetched from the DB for example)
    $object = new stdClass();
    $object->LastLog = '123456789123456';
    $object->Password = 'Mypassword';
    $object->Dramatic = 'Cat';
    $object->Things = array(1,2,3);
    
    // Forge the JSON
    $json->data = $object;
    $json->user = AlexisTM;
    $json->status = 'online';
    
    // Send the JSON
    $json->send();
?>

Sending the json you want

The constructor allow you to send JSON, JSONP with callback or in a variable.

simply a JSON

  $json->send(options);
  > {  ...  }

Callback JSONP

  $json->send_callback('myCallback', options);
  > myCallback({  ...  });

Varibale JSONP

  $json->send_var('myVariable', options);
  > var myVariable = {  ...  };

Options

Options are the default options passed to json_encode.

JSON_HEX_TAG 
echo "Apos: ",    json_encode($a, JSON_HEX_APOS), "\n";
echo "Quot: ",    json_encode($a, JSON_HEX_QUOT), "\n";
echo "Amp: ",     json_encode($a, JSON_HEX_AMP), "\n";
echo "Unicode: ", json_encode($a, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE), "\n";
echo "All: ",     json_encode($a, JSON_HEX_TAG | JSON_HEX_APOS | JSON_HEX_QUOT | JSON_HEX_AMP | JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE)

Will output:

Normal: ["<foo>","'bar'","\"baz\"","&blong&","\u00e9"]
Tags: ["\u003Cfoo\u003E","'bar'","\"baz\"","&blong&","\u00e9"]
Apos: ["<foo>","\u0027bar\u0027","\"baz\"","&blong&","\u00e9"]
Quot: ["<foo>","'bar'","\u0022baz\u0022","&blong&","\u00e9"]
Amp: ["<foo>","'bar'","\"baz\"","\u0026blong\u0026","\u00e9"]
Unicode: ["<foo>","'bar'","\"baz\"","&blong&","é"]
All: ["\u003Cfoo\u003E","\u0027bar\u0027","\u0022baz\u0022","\u0026blong\u0026","é"]

For example:

$json->send(JSON_HEX_APOS | JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);

HTML/JS part example

This library give you a strong JSON API capabilities. But an API is useless if you do not have the front-end. Here are some examples.

Callback with a raw json using JQuery.ajax

$.ajax({
  dataType: "json",
  url: 'http://example.com',
  data: data,
  done: function(json) {
    alert(json);
  }
}); 

Callback with a raw json using JQuery.getJSON

$.getJSON('http://example.com',
data,
function(json) {
  alert(json);
});

Legacy javascript for dynamic loading for JSONP

function load_script(url) {
  var s = document.createElement('script'); 
  s.src = url;
  document.body.appendChild(s);
}

function load_scripts() {
  load_script('http://json.api/users/list');
}

window.onload=load_scripts;

Validating JSON

To validate the JSON, you can grab back the JSON string via the make() method then pass it through an other library.

$jsonString = $json->make();

Knows dumb errors

• The file format of the PHP script MUST be UTF-8 Without BOM. Else the JSON is corrupted for the JQuery AJAX request.
• You can bypass the file format by asking text and not JSON type in the JQuery request and using JSON, then parsing it yourself.
• If you don’t use namespaces, you can call the JSON class via new \Simple\json()
• If you use use \Simple;, you can call the JSON class via new Simple\json()
• If you use use \Simple\json;, you can call the JSON class via new json()

Contribute

To contribute, just contact me! The first fork will be awesome for me!

NOTE:

The reason it comes in version 4 which changes a bit the API is the speed. I as wondering how fast it was to use the library and after some tests, it shows it was 6 times slower than the native function. Therefore, for my own sake, it has to be reworked.

It now as fast as the native json_encode, without having to think at all.

Licence

This work is under MIT licence. Short version: You have to add Alexis Paques in the credits but you can use it for closed-source commercial project.

What next ?

The next step is obviously to add routes, which is needed to make a powerful API.

References

Informations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSONP

Validator: http://json.parser.online.fr

ECMA-404: http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-404.pdf

json_encode: https://php.net/manual/fr/function.json-encode.php

Comparaison of JSON PHP libs: http://gggeek.altervista.org/sw/article_20061113.html

JSON API Standard: http://jsonapi.org/

Credits

Alexis PAQUES (@AlexisTM)