json - PHP json_encode class private members

Question

I'm trying to JSON encode some objects in PHP, but I'm facing a problem: I want to encode data which is kept by a class private members. I found this piece of code to encode this object by calling an encode function like:

public function encodeJSON() 
{ 
    foreach ($this as $key => $value) 
    { 
        $json->$key = $value; 
    } 
    return json_encode($json); 
}

However, this only works if the object I want to encode does not contain other objects inside, which is the case. How can I do to encode not only the "outer" object, but encode as well any members that are objects too?

Answer 1

The best method to serialize an object with private properties is to implement the JsonSerializable interface and then implement your own JsonSerialize method to return the data you require to be serialized.

<?php

class Item implements JsonSerializable
{
    private $var;
    private $var1;
    private $var2;

    public function __construct()
    {
        // ...
    }

    public function jsonSerialize()
    {
        $vars = get_object_vars($this);

        return $vars;
    }
}

json_encode will now serialize your object correctly.