PHP "JSON heredoc" for inline data.. good? bad? comments? I'm trying to keep it simple.

php-json-heredoc.php

<?php

## Parse query string.
$sb_league = $_GET['league'] ? strtolower( $_GET['league'] ) : 'all';

## Nav data, as a JSON heredoc. Much less verbose than PHP arrays!
$navs = json_decode(<<<JSON
{
  "mlb": {
    "title_link": "http://stats.boston.com/mlb/scoreboard.asp",
    "nav": [
      { "title": "Full Schedule",   "url": "http://stats.boston.com/mlb/teamreports.asp?tm=02&report=schedule" },
      { "title": "Statistics",      "url": "http://stats.boston.com/mlb/teamreports.asp?yr=2009&tm=2&btnGo=Go&report=stats" },
      { "title": "Standings",       "url": "http://stats.boston.com/mlb/standings.asp" }
    ]
  },
  "nfl": {
    "title_link": "http://stats.boston.com/fb/scoreboard.asp",
    "nav": [
      { "title": "Full Schedule",   "url": "http://stats.boston.com/fb/teamstats.asp?yr=2009&tm=17&btnGo=Go&type=schedules" },
      { "title": "Statistics",      "url": "http://stats.boston.com/fb/teamstats.asp?teamno=17&type=stats" },
      { "title": "Standings",       "url": "http://stats.boston.com/fb/totalstandings.asp" },
      { "title": "Season timeline", "url": "http://timelines.boston.com/patriots" }
    ]
  },
  "nhl": {
    "title_link": "http://stats.boston.com/nhl/scoreboard.asp",
    "nav": [
      { "title": "Full Schedule",   "url": "http://stats.boston.com/nhl/teamstats.asp?teamno=01&btnGo=Go&type=schedule" },
      { "title": "Statistics",      "url": "http://stats.boston.com/nhl/teamstats.asp?teamno=01&btnGo=Go&type=stats" },
      { "title": "Standings",       "url": "http://stats.boston.com/nhl/standings_conference.asp" },
      { "title": "Season timeline", "url": "http://timelines.boston.com/bruins#/seasons/2009" }
    ]
  },
  "nba": {
    "title_link": "http://stats.boston.com/nba/scoreboard.asp",
    "nav": [
      { "title": "Full Schedule",   "url": "http://stats.boston.com/nba/teamstats.asp?teamno=02&btnGo=Go&type=schedule" },
      { "title": "Statistics",      "url": "http://stats.boston.com/nba/teamstats.asp?teamno=02&btnGo=Go&type=totstats" },
      { "title": "Standings",       "url": "http://stats.boston.com/nba/standings_conference.asp" },
      { "title": "Season timeline", "url": "http://timelines.boston.com/celtics" }
    ]
  }
}
JSON
,true) or die( 'Invalid JSON, please validate at www.jsonlint.com.' );

$nav = $navs[ $sb_league ];

## Output.
?><div class="scorebelt">
  <div class="scorebelt-nav">
    <? if ( $nav['title_link'] ): ?>
      <h3><a href="<?= $nav['title_link'] ?>">Scoreboard</a></h3>
    <? else: ?>
      <h3>Scoreboard</h3>
    <? endif; ?>
    <ul>
      <? foreach ( $nav['nav'] as $item ): ?>
        <li><a href="<?= $item['url'] ?>"><?= $item['title'] ?></a></li>
      <? endforeach; ?>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Just remember that no matter how efficiently json_decode() performs here, the fact that you're not using native PHP arrays will bypass any opcode caching systems like APC or xcache. You also delay syntax checking to the moment json_decode() is called. Just thought I'd throw those thoughts out there. :)

voxwerk - thanks for the info. As a primarily JavaScript developer, I only intended this approach to be used as a "quick hack" to manage simple data structures for basic one-off scripts, not as a replacement for anything more robust. And of course, with the corresponding PHP TextMate bundle JSON heredoc syntax highlighting patch, syntax errors shouldn't be an issue!