Serialized Object Representation in Javascript from PHP

Question

Let's say I have a Widget object that I serialize and send back to the browser at a regular interval. This Widget object includes lots of different members (variables) and other objects along with their members. For example, in PHP, my widget may look like this:

class Widget implements \JsonSerializable{
 private $_variable_1 = null;
 private $_variable_2 = null;
 private $_object_widget_child = null; //This is an array of widget children
}

For sake of brevity, the object Widget_child may have many members (variables) and objects.

I find it cumbersome to work with serialized objects in javascript when they are implemented in this way in PHP because I end up having to write javascript code to iterate through each array of serialized objects. Example in javascript:

...
success: function(data){
 var variable_1 = data.widget._variable_1;
 var variable_2 = data.widget._variable_2;
 var num_widget_children = data.widget._object_widget_child.length;
 if(num_widget_children > 0){
 for(var i = 0; i < num_widget_children; i++){
 //Do something like access widget childs name
 }
}

I think you could see how this could become very cumbersome if the widget children also had arrays of objects as members of its class and I needed to access some property 5 levels deep.

Is this method of design the issue or is there an easier way to work with serialized objects from PHP in javascript that I need to research?

Answer 1

If you need to process nested arrays with known structure, you should create method which will process every level using recurency:

function myHelper(widget) {
 var result = {
 variable_1: widget._variable_1,
 variable_2: widget._variable_2,
 children: [],
 };
 var num_widget_children = widget._object_widget_child.length;
 if (num_widget_children > 0){
 for (var i = 0; i < num_widget_children; i++){
 result.children.push(myHelper(widget._object_widget_child[i]));
 }
 }
 return result;
}

• larrylampco: I don't know if I agree with using recursion as I think that would add unnecessary complexity. However, I do see a benefit to creating methods that would specifically handle nested objects.
• rob006: @larrylampco I'm not sure what kind of complexity you are talking about - this is directly the consequence of the DRY principle (all widget objects are processed by one method). Recursion is just a representation of nesting.