README

The concept is similar to Moshi, a Java/Kotlin serialization library - the least effort without sacrificing customizability, support for different formats or ease of use.

This is what it can serialize and deserialize out-of-the-box:

/**
 * @template T1
 */
class Item
{
	/**
	 * @param BackedEnumStub[] $array
	 * @param Collection<int, T1>
	 * @param T1 $generic
	 * @param NestedGeneric<int, T1> $nested
	 */
	public function __construct(
		// Scalars
		public readonly int $int,
		public readonly float $float,
		public readonly string $string,
		public readonly bool $bool,
		// Nullable and optional values
		public readonly ?string $nullableString,
		public readonly int|null|MissingValue $optional,
		// Custom property names
		#[SerializedName('two')] public readonly string $one,
		// Backed enums
		public readonly BackedEnumStub $backedEnum,
		// Generics and nested objects
		public readonly mixed $generic,
		public readonly NestedGenerics $nestedGeneric,
		// Arrays and Illuminate Collection of any type (with generics!)
		public readonly array $array,
		public readonly Collection $collection,
		// Dates
		public readonly DateTime $dateTime,
		public readonly Carbon $carbon,
	) {}
}

You can then convert it into a "primitive" (scalars and arrays of scalars) or JSON:

$primitiveAdapter = $serializer->adapter(
	PrimitiveTypeAdapter::class, 
	NamedType::wrap(Item::class, [Carbon::class])
);
// -> ['int' => 123, ...]
$primitiveAdapter->serialize(new Item(...));

$jsonAdapter = $serializer->adapter(
	JsonTypeAdapter::class, 
	NamedType::wrap(Item::class, [PrimitiveType::int()])
);
// new Item(123, ...)
$jsonAdapter->deserialize('{"int": 123, ...}');

Documentation

Basic documentation is available in docs/. For examples, you can look at the test suite: tests/Integration.

Why this over everything else?

There are some alternatives to this, but they usually lack one of the following:

stupid simple internal structure: no node tree, no value/JSON wrappers, no in-repo custom reflection implementation, no PHP parsing
doesn't rely on inheritance of serializable classes, hence allows serializing third-party classes
parses existing PHPDoc information instead of duplicating it through attributes
supports generic types which are quite useful for wrapper types
allows simple extension through mappers and complex stuff through type adapters
produces developer-friendly error messages for invalid data
correctly handles optional (missing keys) and null values as separate concerns
simple to extend with additional formats

good-php / serialization

Maintainers

Details

README

Documentation

Why this over everything else?