Reading Serialized PHP Objects from Erlang

[RJ]

Written on 09/27/2008 22:42:20

URL: http://www.metabrew.com/article/reading-serialized-php-objects-from-erlang

[RJ]

Comment written by John Wright on 10/29/2008 21:02:52

Do you all use Thrift at Facebook to serialize PHP objects? It comes with built-in PHP and Erlang generators.

[RJ]

Comment written by RJ on 10/30/2008 13:38:26

Erm, I don't know exactly what facebook do, but i think i read somewhere that they do use thrift for serializing php objects, yes.

Sadly changing our php serialization format isn't gonna happen, hence the need for the above code.

[RJ]

Comment written by Andy Skelton on 01/16/2009 04:44:55

Thanks! I used this code in a gen_server that provides PHP eval access within Erlang. Under what license do you release this?

[RJ]

Comment written by Andy Skelton on 01/19/2009 22:48:11

I didn't see the low-contrast message in the footer before. GPLv2 then. Thanks.

[RJ]

Comment written by RJ on 02/05/2009 14:07:12

Yep GPLv2 - i should make that more visible.
I've also rolled a php-eval server in erlang, maybe i'll dust it off and publish it soon :)

[RJ]

Comment written by myracer on 10/24/2009 11:57:39

I have a good fresh joke for you! What did the elephant say to the naked man? It's cute, but can you pick up peanuts with it?
___________________________
--/ viagara generic /--

[RJ]

Comment written by emilio on 11/04/2009 23:04:54

I am having a hard time deciphering the serialized string. In your example above, your array is serialized as:
a:4:{i:0;i:123;i:1;s:5:"hello";...

this is confusing to me. if the syntax is i:0 means index = 0, and i:123 means the value at [0] = 123, how does unserialize know whether the i: means the index or the value?

sorry if thats a dumb question, i can't find any information about this syntax anywhere.

[RJ]

Comment written by emilio on 11/04/2009 23:19:11

sorry, I forgot to add:
and why in the second array is there not an i:0? eg.
a:2:{s:1:"a";....

based on the first portion of the code, I would have expected:
a:2:{i:0;s:1:"a";

why is there no reference to index in the second array?

thanks for any advice, and if you can point me to a reference I would be VERY grateful because I have large, complex data structure serialized (composed of many objects and data types) and its a little hairy at the moment.

[RJ]

Comment written by myrnacid on 11/12/2009 15:22:09

Sorry, for off top, i wanna tell one joke) What do you get if you cross a giant and a vampire? A BIG pain in the neck!
___________________________
--/ viagera buy Illinois /--

[RJ]

Comment written by sjolzy on 12/22/2010 01:28:42

<?php
$host = "127.0.0.1";
$port = 1187;
$fp = stream_socket_client("tcp://$host:$port", $errno, $errstr, 2);
if (!$fp) {
echo "$errstr ($errno)\n";
} else {
stream_set_timeout($fp,2);
get_line($fp);

put_line($fp,"SYSMSG,bobo,Hi boy");

fclose($fp);
}
function get_line($handle){
while(!feof($handle)){
$buff =fread($handle,2);
$head =unpack("H*",$buff);
return fread($handle,hexdec($head[1]));
}
}
function put_line($handle,$data){
$body=pack("A*",$data);
$len=strlen($body);
$head=pack("H*",to_hex_str($len));
fwrite($handle,$head.$body);
}
function to_hex_str($num){
$str =dechex($num);
$str =str_repeat('0',4-strlen($str)).$str;
return $str;
}
?>

This is what I used

[RJ]

Comment written by php developers on 04/30/2011 13:09:19

Keep up the good Business to Business posts- great work.

[RJ]

Comment written by Jason Judge on 07/07/2015 09:50:57

Six years later, I'll give a reply: because they come in pairs. a:4:{key;value;key;value} Both the keys and values can be various different data types (e.g. int, string and even null for the key, and *anything* of any complexity for the value).

Just had to work this out for a serialized data parser I've written for PHP: https://github.com/academe/...

[RJ]

Comment written by Jason Judge on 07/07/2015 09:55:20

PHP "arrays" can be a numeric indexed array as you know in many other languages, or a dictionary with strings as keys, or even a mix of the two. PHP just calls them "arrays", but they are more than that. Here you are looking at {"a": 3, "foo": "b", 4: "bar"} in a json-ish format.