README

The concept is similar to Moshi, a Java/Kotlin serialization library - the least effort without sacrificing customizability, support for different formats or ease of use.

This is what it can serialize and deserialize out-of-the-box:

/**  * @template T1  */ class Item { /**  * @param BackedEnumStub[] $array  * @param Collection<int, T1>  * @param T1 $generic  * @param NestedGeneric<int, T1> $nested  */ public function __construct( // Scalars public readonly int $int, public readonly float $float, public readonly string $string, public readonly bool $bool, // Nullable and optional values public readonly ?string $nullableString, public readonly int|null|MissingValue $optional, // Custom property names #[SerializedName('two')] public readonly string $one, // Backed enums public readonly BackedEnumStub $backedEnum, // Generics and nested objects public readonly mixed $generic, public readonly NestedGenerics $nestedGeneric, // Arrays and Illuminate Collection of any type (with generics!) public readonly array $array, public readonly Collection $collection, // Dates public readonly DateTime $dateTime, public readonly Carbon $carbon, ) {} }

You can then convert it into a "primitive" (scalars and arrays of scalars) or JSON:

$primitiveAdapter = $serializer->adapter( PrimitiveTypeAdapter::class, NamedType::wrap(Item::class, [Carbon::class]) ); // -> ['int' => 123, ...] $primitiveAdapter->serialize(new Item(...)); $jsonAdapter = $serializer->adapter( JsonTypeAdapter::class, NamedType::wrap(Item::class, [PrimitiveType::int()]) ); // new Item(123, ...) $jsonAdapter->deserialize('{"int": 123, ...}');

Documentation

Basic documentation is available in docs/. For examples, you can look at the test suite: tests/Integration.

Why this over everything else?

There are some alternatives to this, but they usually lack one of the following:

• stupid simple internal structure: no node tree, no value/JSON wrappers, no in-repo custom reflection implementation, no PHP parsing
• doesn't rely on inheritance of serializable classes, hence allows serializing third-party classes
• parses existing PHPDoc information instead of duplicating it through attributes
• supports generic types which are quite useful for wrapper types
• allows simple extension through mappers and complex stuff through type adapters
• produces developer-friendly error messages for invalid data
• correctly handles optional (missing keys) and null values as separate concerns
• simple to extend with additional formats