README

A lightweight and extensible PHP library to convert structured data between formats.
Currently supports: array → XML, XML → array and array ↔ JSON conversion.

🚀 Features

✅ Convert associative arrays to XML
✅ Convert XML to associative arrays
✅ Convert arrays to JSON (with optional flags)
✅ Convert JSON strings to associative arrays
✅ Custom root element name
✅ Optional XML declaration
✅ Null → xsi:nil conversion
✅ Boolean → string normalization (true / false)
✅ Recursive array handling
✅ Clean and readable output (pretty print)
✅ Invalid characters are automatically removed
✅ Minimal and modern code (no dependencies)

📦 Installation

composer require selfphp/data-converter

✅ PHP 8.1 or higher required

✨ Usage Example

Array to XML

use Selfphp\DataConverter\Format\ArrayToXmlConverter;

$array = [
    'user' => [
        'name' => 'Alice',
        'active' => true,
        'note' => null
    ]
];

$xml = ArrayToXmlConverter::convertArray(
    $array,
    rootElement: 'response',
    addXmlDeclaration: true,
    convertNullToXsiNil: true,
    convertBoolToString: true
);

echo $xml;

XML to Array

use Selfphp\DataConverter\Format\XmlToArrayConverter;

$xml = <<<XML
<user id="42" active="true">Alice</user>
XML;

$converter = new XmlToArrayConverter();
$array = $converter->convert($xml);

print_r($array);
// [
//     '@id' => '42',
//     '@active' => 'true',
//     '#text' => 'Alice'
// ]

Array to JSON

use Selfphp\DataConverter\Format\ArrayToJsonConverter;

$data = ['url' => 'https://example.com'];

$converter = (new ArrayToJsonConverter())
    ->withFlags(JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES | JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

echo $converter->convert($data);

JSON to Array

use Selfphp\DataConverter\Format\JsonToArrayConverter;

$json = '{"name":"Alice","active":true}';

$converter = new JsonToArrayConverter();
$array = $converter->convert($json);

🧪 Tests

Run all PHPUnit tests:

vendor/bin/phpunit --testdox

📁 Project Structure

src/
└── Format/
    ├── ArrayToXmlConverter.php
    ├── XmlToArrayConverter.php
    ├── ArrayToJsonConverter.php
    └── JsonToArrayConverter.php

tests/
└── Format/
    ├── ArrayToXmlConverterTest.php
    ├── XmlToArrayConverterTest.php
    ├── ArrayToJsonConverterTest.php
    └── JsonToArrayConverterTest.php

⚠️ Limitations and Edge Cases

While the XmlToArrayConverter is suitable for most real-world use cases, there are a few edge cases and known limitations to be aware of:

❌ Mixed Content

XML nodes with both text and child elements (mixed content) are not fully preserved. For example:

<item>This is <b>bold</b> and normal text.</item>

Would result in:

['b' => 'bold'] // Text parts around <b> are not preserved

⚠️ Empty Elements

Empty elements like <foo/> are interpreted as empty strings, not as null or empty arrays. If needed, you can post-process the result accordingly.

⚠️ All values are strings

XML data types (numbers, booleans) are not automatically casted. For example:

<active>true</active>

Becomes:

['active' => 'true'] // not boolean true

❌ XML Namespaces

Namespaces (e.g. xmlns or prefixed elements) are ignored and stripped automatically. Support for namespaces may be added in a future release.

If you encounter any of these scenarios in real-world data, feel free to contribute or open an issue 🙌

🛠 Planned

XML → Array
JSON ↔ Array
JSON ↔ XML
CLI support (php convert input.json)
Stream support

📄 License

MIT License – free for personal and commercial use.

selfphp / data-converter

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