Serialization to BSON

Arrays

If an array is a packed array — i.e. empty array or the keys start at 0 and are sequential without gaps: BSON array.

If the array is not packed — i.e. having associative (string) keys, the keys don't start at 0, or when there are gaps:: BSON object

A top-level (root) document, always serializes as a BSON document.

Examples

These serialize as a BSON array:

[ 8, 5, 2, 3 ] => [ 8, 5, 2, 3 ]
[ 0 => 4, 1 => 9 ] => [ 4, 9 ]

These serialize as a BSON document:

[ 0 => 1, 2 => 8, 3 => 12 ] => { "0" : 1, "2" : 8, "3" : 12 }
[ "foo" => 42 ] => { "foo" : 42 }
[ 1 => 9, 0 => 10 ] => { "1" : 9, "0" : 10 }

Note that the five examples are extracts of a full document, and represent only one value inside a document.

Objects

If an object is of the stdClass class, serialize as a BSON document.

If an object is a supported class that implements MongoDB\BSON\Type, then use the BSON serialization logic for that specific type. MongoDB\BSON\Type instances (excluding MongoDB\BSON\Serializable may only be serialized as a document field value. Attempting to serialize such an object as a root document will throw a MongoDB\Driver\Exception\UnexpectedValueException

If an object is of an unknown class implementing the MongoDB\BSON\Type interface, then throw a MongoDB\Driver\Exception\UnexpectedValueException

If an object is of any other class, without implementing any special interface, serialize as a BSON document. Keep only public properties, and ignore protected and private properties.

If an object is of a class that implements the MongoDB\BSON\Serializable interface, call MongoDB\BSON\Serializable::bsonSerialize() and use the returned array or stdClass to serialize as a BSON document or array. The BSON type will be determined by the following:

  1. Root documents must be serialized as a BSON document.

  2. MongoDB\BSON\Persistable objects must be serialized as a BSON document.

  3. If MongoDB\BSON\Serializable::bsonSerialize() returns a packed array, serialize as a BSON array.

  4. If MongoDB\BSON\Serializable::bsonSerialize() returns a non-packed array or stdClass, serialize as a BSON document.

  5. If MongoDB\BSON\Serializable::bsonSerialize() did not return an array or stdClass, throw an MongoDB\Driver\Exception\UnexpectedValueException exception.

If an object is of a class that implements the MongoDB\BSON\Persistable interface (which implies MongoDB\BSON\Serializable), obtain the properties in a similar way as in the previous paragraphs, but also add an additional property __pclass as a Binary value, with subtype 0x80 and data bearing the fully qualified class name of the object that is being serialized.

The __pclass property is added to the array or object returned by MongoDB\BSON\Serializable::bsonSerialize(), which means it will overwrite any __pclass key/property in the MongoDB\BSON\Serializable::bsonSerialize() return value. If you want to avoid this behaviour and set your own __pclass value, you must not implement MongoDB\BSON\Persistable and should instead implement MongoDB\BSON\Serializable directly.

Examples

<?php

class stdClass
{
public
$foo = 42;
}
// => {"foo": 42}

class MyClass
{
public
$foo = 42;
protected
$prot = 'wine';
private
$fpr = 'cheese';
}
// => {"foo": 42}

class AnotherClass1 implements MongoDB\BSON\Serializable
{
public
$foo = 42;
protected
$prot = 'wine';
private
$fpr = 'cheese';

public function
bsonSerialize(): array
{
return [
'foo' => $this->foo, 'prot' => $this->prot];
}
}
// => {"foo": 42, "prot": "wine"}

class AnotherClass2 implements MongoDB\BSON\Serializable
{
public
$foo = 42;

public function
bsonSerialize(): self
{
return
$this;
}
}
// => MongoDB\Driver\Exception\UnexpectedValueException("bsonSerialize() did not return an array or stdClass")

class AnotherClass3 implements MongoDB\BSON\Serializable
{
private
$elements = ['foo', 'bar'];

public function
bsonSerialize(): array
{
return
$this->elements;
}
}
// => {"0": "foo", "1": "bar"}

/**
* Nesting Serializable classes
*/

class AnotherClass4 implements MongoDB\BSON\Serializable
{
private
$elements = [0 => 'foo', 2 => 'bar'];

public function
bsonSerialize(): array
{
return
$this->elements;
}
}
// => {"0": "foo", "2": "bar"}

class ContainerClass1 implements MongoDB\BSON\Serializable
{
public
$things;

public function
__construct()
{
$this->things = new AnotherClass4();
}

function
bsonSerialize(): array
{
return [
'things' => $this->things];
}
}
// => {"things": {"0": "foo", "2": "bar"}}


class AnotherClass5 implements MongoDB\BSON\Serializable
{
private
$elements = [0 => 'foo', 2 => 'bar'];

public function
bsonSerialize(): array
{
return
array_values($this->elements);
}
}
// => {"0": "foo", "1": "bar"} as a root class
["foo", "bar"] as a nested value

class ContainerClass2 implements MongoDB\BSON\Serializable
{
public
$things;

public function
__construct()
{
$this->things = new AnotherClass5();
}

public function
bsonSerialize(): array
{
return [
'things' => $this->things];
}
}
// => {"things": ["foo", "bar"]}


class AnotherClass6 implements MongoDB\BSON\Serializable
{
private
$elements = ['foo', 'bar'];

function
bsonSerialize(): object
{
return (object)
$this->elements;
}
}
// => {"0": "foo", "1": "bar"}

class ContainerClass3 implements MongoDB\BSON\Serializable
{
public
$things;

public function
__construct()
{
$this->things = new AnotherClass6();
}

public function
bsonSerialize(): array
{
return [
'things' => $this->things];
}
}
// => {"things": {"0": "foo", "1": "bar"}}

class UpperClass implements MongoDB\BSON\Persistable
{
public
$foo = 42;
protected
$prot = 'wine';
private
$fpr = 'cheese';

private
$data;

public function
bsonUnserialize(array $data): void
{
$this->data = $data;
}

public function
bsonSerialize(): array
{
return [
'foo' => $this->foo, 'prot' => $this->prot];
}
}
// => {"foo": 42, "prot": "wine", "__pclass": {"$type": "80", "$binary": "VXBwZXJDbGFzcw=="}}

?>
add a note

User Contributed Notes

There are no user contributed notes for this page.
To Top