PHP json_encode and javascript functions

Question

I need to encode a javascript function into a JSON object in PHP.

This:

$function = "function(){}";
$message = "Hello";

$json = array(   
      'message' => $message,
      'func' => $function
);
echo json_encode($json);

outputs:

{"message":"Hello","func":"function(){}"}

What I want is:

{"message":"Hello","func":function(){}}

Can I do this with json_encode?

Answer 1

As Jani said, this is not possible directly with JSON, but this might help you: https://waybackassets.bk21.net/20080828165256/http://solutoire.com/2008/06/12/sending-javascript-functions-over-json/

Answer 2

json_decode parse the given array to json string, so you can play with it as a string. Just use some unique string to indicate the start and the end of the function. Then use str_replace to remove the quotes.

$function = "#!!function(){}!!#"; 
$message = "Hello";

$json = array(   
  'message' => $message,
  'func' => $function
);
$string = json_encode($json);
$string = str_replace('"#!!','',$string);
$string = str_replace('!!#"','',$string);
echo $string;

The output will be:

{"message":"Hello","func":function(){}}

Answer 3

No. JSON spec does not support functions. You can write your own code to output it in a JSON-like format and it should work fine though.

Answer 4

If don't want to write your own JSON encoder you can resort to Zend_Json, the JSON encoder for the Zend Framework. It includes the capability to cope with JSON expressions.

Answer 5

I wrote a small library that allows to do this. It's similar to Zend framworks's solution, but this library is much more lightweight as it uses the built-in json_encode function. It is also easier to use with external libraries, where json_encode is buried deeply in vendor code.

<?php
    use Balping\JsonRaw\Raw;
    use Balping\JsonRaw\Encoder;

    $array = [
        'type' => 'cat',
        'count' => 42,
        'callback' => new Raw('function(a){alert(a);}')
    ];
?>

<script>
    let bar = <?php echo Encoder::encode($array); ?>
    bar.callback('hello'); //prints hello
</script>

Answer 6

I write this simple function for all json function based help my myabe help someone:

function json_encode_ex($array) {
    $var = json_encode($array);
    preg_match_all('/\"function.*?\"/', $var, $matches);
    foreach ($matches[0] as $key => $value) {
        $newval = str_replace(array('\n', '\t','\/'), array(PHP_EOL,"\t",'/'), trim($value, '"'));
        $var = str_replace($value, $newval, $var);
    }
    return $var;
}

Answer 7

You can try this:

var json_string = '{"message":"Hello","myfunc":"function(){ alert(this.message) }"}';
var json_string = JSON.parse(json_string, function(k,v){
    if(typeof v == 'string' && /function\(\)\{/.test(v)){
        return eval(k+' = '+v); 
    }else{
        return v
    }
});

Answer 8

The enconding part in PHP is seems to be solved by now. You can use

json_encode($p, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE)

this way your function will not be escaped. However

Answer 9

This function can also help:

function jsonify($var){
return str_ireplace(array("'function",'"function',"}'",'}"'),array("function",'function',"}",'}'),json_encode($var));
}

Taken from here: http://network.convergenceservices.in/forum/105-uknowva-development/4710-introducing-convhelperjsonify-in-uknowva-251.html#4710