Module PHP
In: lib/php_serialize.rb

PHP serialize() and unserialize() workalikes

 First Released: 2003-06-02 (1.0.0)
 Prev Release: 2003-06-16 (1.0.1), by Thomas Hurst <tom@hur.st>
 This Release: 2004-09-17 (1.0.2), by Thomas Hurst <tom@hur.st>
               Switch all {}'s to explicit Hash.new's.

 These two methods should, for the most part, be functionally identical
 to the respective PHP functions;
  http://www.php.net/serialize, http://www.php.net/unserialize

 string = PHP.serialize(mixed var[, bool assoc])
  Returns a string representing the argument in a form PHP.unserialize
  and PHP's unserialize() should both be able to load.

  Array, Hash, Fixnum, Float, True/FalseClass, NilClass, String and Struct
  are supported; as are objects which support the to_assoc method, which
  returns an array of the form [['attr_name', 'value']..].  Anything else
  will raise a TypeError.

  If 'assoc' is specified, Array's who's first element is a two value
  array will be assumed to be an associative array, and will be serialized
  as a PHP associative array rather than a multidimensional array.

 mixed = PHP.unserialize(string serialized, [hash classmap, [bool assoc]])
  Returns an object containing the reconstituted data from serialized.

  If a PHP array (associative; like an ordered hash) is encountered, it
  scans the keys; if they're all incrementing integers counting from 0,
  it's unserialized as an Array, otherwise it's unserialized as a Hash.
  Note: this will lose ordering.  To avoid this, specify assoc=true,
  and it will be unserialized as an associative array: [[key,value],...]

  If a serialized object is encountered, the hash 'classmap' is searched for
  the class name (as a symbol).  Since PHP classnames are not case-preserving,
  this *must* be a .capitalize()d representation.  The value is expected
  to be the class itself; i.e. something you could call .new on.

  If it's not found in 'classmap', the current constant namespace is searched,
  and failing that, a new Struct(classname) is generated, with the arguments
  for .new specified in the same order PHP provided; since PHP uses hashes
  to represent attributes, this should be the same order they're specified
  in PHP, but this is untested.

  each serialized attribute is sent to the new object using the respective
  {attribute}=() method; you'll get a NameError if the method doesn't exist.

  Array, Hash, Fixnum, Float, True/FalseClass, NilClass and String should
  be returned identically (i.e. foo == PHP.unserialize(PHP.serialize(foo))
  for these types); Struct should be too, provided it's in the namespace
  Module.const_get within unserialize() can see, or you gave it the same
  name in the Struct.new(<structname>), otherwise you should provide it in
  classmap.

Note: StringIO is required for unserialize(); it‘s loaded as needed

Methods

Public Class methods

[Validate]