Data Exchange with XML, WDDX and PHP - Old Friends And New

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You can serialize more than one variable at a time with the wddx_serialize_vars() function, which accepts a list of variable names and creates a single WDDX packet representing the entire set. The code snippet

<?
// variables
$friends = array("Rachel", "Phoebe", "Monica", "Chandler", "Joey", "Ross");



$total = 34238;



$phrase = "The wild blue fox jumped over the indigo submarine";



$error_flag = false;



// serialize
echo wddx_serialize_vars("friends", "total", "phrase", "error_flag");
?>

would generate the WDDX packet

<wddxPacket version='1.0'>
<header/><data><struct><var name='friends'><array length='6'><string>Rachel</string><string>Phoebe</string><string>Monica</string><string>Chandler</string><string>Joey</string><string>Ross</string></array>/var><var name='total'><number>34238</number></var><var name='phrase'><string>The wild blue fox jumped over the indigo submarine</string></var><var name='error_flag'><boolean value='false'/></var></struct></data></wddxPacket>

Note that the line breaks have been added by me for clarity - PHP generates the entire packet as a single string.

You can also serialize an associative array

<?
// set up array$star_wars = array('princess' => 'Leia', 'teacher' => 'Yoda', 'new hope' =>'Luke', 'bad guy' => 'Darth', 'worse guy' => 'The Emperor');// serializeecho wddx_serialize_vars("star_wars");?>

into this WDDX representation:

<wddxPacket version='1.0'>
<header/><data><struct><var name='star_wars'><struct><var name='princess'><string>Leia</string></var><var name='teacher'><string>Yoda</string></var><var name='new hope'><string>Luke</string></var><var name='bad guy'><string>Darth</string></var><var name='worse guy'><string>The Emperor</string></var></struct></var></struct></data></wddxPacket>

Wanna really cause some heartburn? Try serializing an array of arrays.

<?
// array of arrays$all_mixed_up = array( array("red", "green", "blue"), array("laurel", "hardy"), array("macaroni", "spaghetti", "lasagne", "fettucine"), array("Spiderman", "Superman", "Human Torch", "Batman"), array("princess" => "Leia", "teacher" => "Yoda", "new hope" => "Luke","bad guy" => "Darth", "worse guy" => "The Emperor"));// serializeecho wddx_serialize_vars("all_mixed_up");?>

Here's the WDDX representation:

<wddxPacket version='1.0'>
<header/><data><struct><var name='all_mixed_up'><array length='5'><array length='3'><string>red</string><string>green</string><string>blue</string></array><array length='2'><string>laurel</string><string>hardy</string></array><array length='4'><string>macaroni</string><string>spaghetti</string><string>lasagne</string><string>fettucine</string></array><array length='4'><string>Spiderman</string><string>Superman</string><string>Human Torch</string><string>Batman</string></array><struct><var name='princess'><string>Leia</string></var><var name='teacher'><string>Yoda</string></var><var name='new hope'><string>Luke</string></var><var name='bad guy'><string>Darth</string></var><var name='worse guy'><string>The Emperor</string></var></struct></array></var></struct></data></wddxPacket>

Note that when this structure is deserialized, it will result in an associative array containing the single key "star_wars", which points to an array of the original values. The following example demonstrates this:

<?
// array of arrays$all_mixed_up = array( array("red", "green", "blue"), array("laurel", "hardy"), array("macaroni", "spaghetti", "lasagne", "fettucine"), array("Spiderman", "Superman", "Human Torch", "Batman"), array("princess" => "Leia", "teacher" => "Yoda", "new hope" => "Luke","bad guy" => "Darth", "worse guy" => "The Emperor"));// serialize$packet = wddx_serialize_vars("all_mixed_up");// and deserialize (as associative array)$structure = wddx_deserialize($packet);// returns Arrayecho $structure;// retrieve keys$keys = array_keys($structure);// returns "all_mixed_up"echo $keys[0];// returns Array (first element of original $all_mixed_up)echo $structure['all_mixed_up'][0];// returns "red"echo $structure['all_mixed_up'][0][0];// returns "Yoda"echo $structure['all_mixed_up'][4]['teacher'];?>

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