PHP array to JSON in CakePHP

By on June 4, 2007 in CakePHP, Javascript, PHP

It is an often asked question on the CakePHP google groups, how to pass a php array to javascript. The answer is to convert the PHP array to JSON, I have seen several solutions recommended which included using vendor classes, the PHP 5 extension for JSON - however the recommended way is to use the 'Object' method of javascript helper. Being a pure PHP solution it works in both PHP 4 as well 5

Using it is as simple as using any other helper, suppose you have some arrays in your controller, just pass them to the view and use.

OK! here is stripped down code snippet with output

Controller code

PLAIN TEXT
PHP:
  1. $my_array = array(1,2,3,4,5);
  2. $my_array2= array('one'=>'1','two'=>'2','3');
  3. $this->set(compact('my_array','my_array2'));

View code

PLAIN TEXT
PHP:
  1. echo $javascript->Object($my_array);
  2. echo $javascript->Object($my_array2);

The output is

PLAIN TEXT
JavaScript:
  1. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  2. {"one":1, "two":2, "0":3}

A more complex output from the result of findAll in Cheesecake-Photoblog is shown below.

PLAIN TEXT
PHP:
  2. (
  3.     [0] => Array
  4.         (
  5.             [Photo] => Array
  6.                 (
  7.                     [id] => 2
  8.                     [filename] => 1180944624_3dgreen.png
  9.                     [title] => 3D Green
  10.                     [created] => 2007-06-04 13:40:00
  11.                 )
  12.  
  13.         )
  14.  
  15.     [1] => Array
  16.         (
  17.             [Photo] => Array
  18.                 (
  19.                     [id] => 1
  20.                     [filename] => 1180938295_FreshFlower.jpg
  21.                     [title] => Fresh Flower
  22.                     [created] => 2007-06-04 11:54:00
  23.                 )
  24.  
  25.         )
  26.  
  27. )

Resultant JSON

PLAIN TEXT
JavaScript:
  1. [{"Photo":{"id":2, "filename":"1180944624_3dgreen.png", "title":"3D Green", "created":"2007-06-04 13:40:00"}}, {"Photo":{"id":1, "filename":"1180938295_FreshFlower.jpg", "title":"Fresh Flower", "created":"2007-06-04 11:54:00"}}]

What you now do with the JSON output is entirely upto you

About Tarique Sani

Dr. Tarique Sani is a pediatrician and forensic expert by education. He is a PHP programmer of 'wrote the book' caliber and has to his credit several very popular open source as well as commercial PHP projects. He leads a team of dynamic programmers at SANIsoft who have in-depth understanding of Web development tools and usability practices with strong developmental skills in PHP, MySQL/PostgreSQL, HTML, DHTML, Javascript, and Linux/Apache
View all posts by Tarique Sani →

7 Responses to PHP array to JSON in CakePHP

  1. Coder October 27, 2007 at 8:13 pm #

    I didn't know it was so simple using the $javascript->Object method, thank you for sharing this it has become useful already.

    Reply
  2. Dieter@be February 3, 2009 at 9:22 pm #

    Nice tip, thanks

    Reply
  3. John February 27, 2009 at 6:25 pm #

    Brilliant Tip. I had no idea it was so easy. To think I've been building the arrays myself all this time. Duh.

    Reply
  4. Angel S. Moreno July 8, 2010 at 2:37 am #

    other than full compatibility, what advantage do I get using this over the native PHP json_encode ?

    Reply
  5. Sanjeev Divekar October 28, 2010 at 3:27 pm #

    Great. Very Simple but Effective.

    Reply
  6. ylhtan May 11, 2011 at 1:15 pm #

    Thanks!

    Reply
  7. BEnoy October 31, 2011 at 5:23 pm #

    it was a quiet good tutorial.

    Reply

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