Abivia Hydration

Encoding

Hydration provides facilities for preparing Hydratable structures for storage as configuration files, analogous to json_encode(). The class needs to support the JsonSerializable interface and call Hydratable::encode().

public function jsonSerialize()
{
    return self::$hydrator->encode($this);
}

Encoding provides for the formatting and ordering of properties, and the suppression of properties with default values. This is achieved by adding encoding rules to Properties via the encodeWith() method. encodeWith() accepts a string, EncoderRule or an array of rules. If a single string is passed, then it can be a compound rule of the form "rule1|rule2|rule3...".

Encoding rules are a command verb with any arguments separated by colons. Possible command verbs are array, drop, order, scalar, and transform.

Array

The array rule will cast the encoded value to an array.

Drop

A drop rule will omit a property when a matching condition is found. The conditions are: - blank The property will be dropped if it is an empty string. - empty[:method] The property will be dropped if the empty method returns true. The default empty method is isEmpty(). This can be overridden by supplying an alternate method name. - false The property is dropped if it evaluates to false. - null The property is dropped if it is null. - true The property is dropped if it evaluates to true. - zero The property is dropped if it is equal to zero.

Order

The order rule requires a number (e.g. "order:20"). Hydration will sort the generated properties with the lowest order first. The number can be integer or floating point.

Scalar

The scalar rule will convert a single valued array into a stand-alone value. Note that the result might not be an actual scalar if the array element is not a scalar. This rule will convert [[1, 2, 3]] to [1, 2, 3].

Transform

Transform rules take a method name or a Callable as the argument (e.g. "transform:compress"). This function will be called with the property value, the source object, and the current Property as arguments. It is expected that the value is passed by reference.

Encoding transforms allow the application to convert objects into forms that are easier for users to manipulate.