php-serialized-data

Parse PHP serialized data with JavaScript.

PHP's serialize function doesn't have a spec, so I used the handy Kaitai Struct spec as reference instead

yarn add php-serialized-data

Or use it directly in the browser:

import { parse } from 'https://cdn.pika.dev/php-serialized-data';

Usage Examples

import { parse } from 'php-serialized-data';

const data = parse( 'O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:3:"foo";s:3:"bar";s:16:"\u0000stdClass\u0000secret";s:3:"shh";}' );

/*
PHPObject(
  className: 'stdClass',
  value: Map( [
    [ PHPString( value: 'foo' ), PHPString( value: 'bar' ) ],
    [ PHPString( value: '\u0000stdClass\u0000secret' ), PHPString( value: 'shh' ) ],
  ] ),
)
*/

data.toJs();

/*
{ foo: 'bar' }
*/

data.toJs( { private: true } );

/*
{ foo: 'bar', secret: 'shh' }
*/

It even works with multi-byte data like emoji:

import { parse } from 'php-serialized-data';

const data = parse( 's:4:"🐊";' );

/*
PHPString( value: '🐊' )
*/

data.toJs();

/*
'🐊'
*/

JS Value Conversion

Use the .toJs() method on the output to convert to native JavaScript types.

value.toJs( options? )

The .toJs() method accepts an options object:

Option	Type	Default	Description
private	Boolean	false	Include private & protected class properties
detectArrays	Boolean	false	Output arrays where possible, instead of objects

Supports PHP Types

• Null
• Integer
• Float
  • Infinity
  • NaN
  • Scientific notation
• String
  • Multi-byte (e.g. emoji)
• Boolean
• Array
• Object
  • Classes
  • Custom Objects (contain arbitrary serialized data. e.g. SplDoublyLinkedList)
• Object Reference
• Value Reference

TODO

• Dereference object & value references
  • Also circular references
• Throw on trailing data