README

A php package to flatten nested json objects and nested arrays. It also allows you to create csv files from the flattened data.

Features

The package allows you to select a specific node of the json object or array and flat it. The selected node can be flattened whether is a object or collection.
It takes in count the full path where a value is stored in a nested json object and uses it as header name. Let's use the example below.

{
	"name": "This is a name",
	"nested": {
		"type": "This is a type",
		"location": "Earth",
		"geo": {
			"latitude": "1234567890",
			"longitude": "0987654321"
		},
		"primitivesCollection":[123, 456, 789]
	}	
}

If we'd like to flat that json object and put it into a csv file, the result would be as follows:

name	nested.type	nested.location	nested.geo.latitude	nested.geo.longitude	nested.primitivesCollection
This is a name	This is a type	Earth	1234567890	0987654321	123, 456, 789

Credits

It's based on csvwriter npm package implementation.

How to use it

If you need to flat a nested json string

use NestedJsonFlattener\Flattener\Flattener;
$dataJson = '{
	"name": "This is a name",
	"nested": {
		"type": "This is a type",
		"location": "Earth",
		"geo": {
			"latitude": "1234567890",
			"longitude": "0987654321"
		},
		"primitivesCollection":[123, 456, 789]
	}	
}';

$flattener = new Flattener();
$flattener->setJsonData($dataJson);
$flat = $flattener->getFlatData();
print_r($flat);

If you need to flat a nested array

use NestedJsonFlattener\Flattener\Flattener;
$data = [
	'name' => 'This is a name', 
	'nested' => [
		'type' => 'This is a type',
		'location' => 'Earth',
		'geo' => [
			'latitude'=> '1234567890',
			'longitude'=> '0987654321'
		],
		'primitivesCollection'=> [123, 456, 789]
	]
];

$flattener = new Flattener();
$flattener->setArrayData($data);
$flat = $flattener->getFlatData();
print_r($flat);

If you need to select a specific path to be flattened

Read JsonPath documentation from Stefan Goessner to learn how to create paths.

use NestedJsonFlattener\Flattener\Flattener;
$data = [
	'name' => 'This is a name', 
	'nested' => [
		'type' => 'This is a type',
		'location' => 'Earth',
		'geo' => [
			'latitude'=> '1234567890',
			'longitude'=> '0987654321'
		],
		'primitivesCollection'=> [123, 456, 789]
	]
];
// This is a path based on JsonPath implementation
$options = ['path'=>'$.nested'];

$flattener = new Flattener($options);
$flattener->setArrayData($data);
$flat = $flattener->getFlatData();
print_r($flat);

If you need to write a csv file

use NestedJsonFlattener\Flattener\Flattener;
$data = [
	'name' => 'This is a name', 
	'nested' => [
		'type' => 'This is a type',
		'location' => 'Earth',
		'geo' => [
			'latitude'=> '1234567890',
			'longitude'=> '0987654321'
		],
		'primitivesCollection'=> [123, 456, 789]
	]
];
$flattener = new Flattener();
$flattener->setArrayData($data);
$flattener->writeCsv();

Local development

Requirements

PHP 7.1+ (tested up to PHP 8.1)
Composer

Install dependencies

composer install

Run the unit tests

composer test

Running the suite on PHP 8.x currently surfaces a few deprecation warnings from the legacy CSV writer implementation. They are harmless and documented here until the runtime is modernized.

TODO

The package still needs to get configurations from params. See milestone
Some of the params in mind are: whether take primitives arrays as one element or not (taken as one element by default)
Add a way to create a configuration to tell the class how to handle internal collections. See milestone

tonirilix / nested-json-flattener

Maintainers

Details