Json Encode or Serialize an XML

Question

I have some xml, this is a simple version of it.

  item one
  item two         


        

Answer 1

You can go the route with json_encode and json_decode and you can add the stuff you're missing because that json_encode-ing follows some specific rules with SimpleXMLElement.

If you're interested into the rules and their details, I have written two blog-posts about it:

• SimpleXML and JSON Encode in PHP – Part I
• SimpleXML and JSON Encode in PHP – Part II

For you perhaps more interesing is the third part which shows how you can modify the json serialization and provide your own format (e.g. to preserve the attributes):

• SimpleXML and JSON Encode in PHP – Part III and End

It ships with a full blown example, here is an excerpt in code:

$xml = '

  item one
  item two

';

$obj = simplexml_load_string($xml, 'JsonXMLElement');

echo $json = json_encode($obj, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT), "\n";

print_r(json_decode($json, TRUE));

Output of JSON and the array is as following, note that the attributes are part of it:

{
    "items": {
        "item": [
            {
                "@attributes": {
                    "abc": "123"
                },
                "@text": "item one"
            },
            {
                "@attributes": {
                    "abc": "456"
                },
                "@text": "item two"
            }
        ]
    }
}
Array
(
    [items] => Array
        (
            [item] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [@attributes] => Array
                                (
                                    [abc] => 123
                                )

                            [@text] => item one
                        )

                    [1] => Array
                        (
                            [@attributes] => Array
                                (
                                    [abc] => 456
                                )

                            [@text] => item two
                        )

                )

        )

)