serialize.rb

# Serializing of Ruby objects compatible with PHP’s unserialize() function
# Ciarán Walsh
require 'enumerator'

class Float
  def serialize
    ['d', self].join(':') + ';'
  end
end
class Integer
  def serialize
    ['i', self].join(':') + ';'
  end
end
class String
  def serialize
    ['s', self.length, '"' + self + '"'].join(':') + ';'
  end
end
class Hash
  def serialize
    ['a', self.size, '{' + keys.map {|i| i.serialize + self[i].serialize }.join + '}'].join(':')
  end
end
class Array
  def serialize
    Hash[*self.enum_with_index.to_a.flatten.reverse].serialize # ["foo", "bar"] => {0 => "foo", 1 => "bar"}
  end
end

if $0 == __FILE__
  require 'rubygems'
  require 'json'
  require 'spec'

  def run_php(code, input)
    IO.popen(code, 'w+') do |io|
      io << input
      io.close_write
      io.read
    end
  end
  
  class Object
    def php_serialize
      run_php(%q{php -r'echo serialize(json_decode(file_get_contents("php://stdin")));'}, self.to_json)
    end
  end

  class Hash
    # Since we are using JSON (which uses Objects as Hashes) to pass data to PHP,
    # it will decode Hashes as instances of stdClass unless we cast to array
    def php_serialize
      run_php(%q{php -r'echo serialize((array)json_decode(file_get_contents("php://stdin")));'}, self.to_json)
    end
  end

  [1, "foo", ['bar', 1, 12], {"foo" => "bar"}].each do |var|
    var.serialize.should == var.php_serialize
  end
end