Preparing A Multi-dimensional Array For An Extjs Tree Control

please dont close this question as repeated one.......... I am new to php. I am developing one tree grid in extjs.were i need to display field in tree format.so for front end i nee

Solution 1:

Why don't you use json_encode? Just do

$str=json_encode($array);

Then, send the data, and at the other end do

$array=json_decode($str);

Solution 2:

Okay, let's break down the problem.

You have an array. Each element in the array is a hash. One (or more) of the values in that hash has to be encoded using that horrible abomination of a library. But the library can't process arrays.

We'll have to process the array ourselves.

<rant> Before we begin, I'd just like to again express how horribly that "Protector" code is designed. It's written for PHP4 and is effectively spaghetti code wrapped in a class. It mis-uses properties, almost as if the user had some sort of mis-remembering about how Java's instance variables work and somehow thought it would be appropriate or sane to use PHP in the same way. If the author of the code doesn't look back on that revolting chunk of bytes now with utter disdain, something is severely wrong with him. </rant>

I'm going to base my knowledge of this class on this copy of it, as the one you've provided is formatted even worse than the original.

First, let's create a list of inner array keys that we need to encode.

$keys_to_encode = array( 'user' );

Your example encoding lists only the user key as encodable. If you need to encode others, just add more elements to that array.

Now, let's prepare our "Protector." It seems to want you to either specify a pattern, or use the MakePattern method to have it create one. We're going to manually-specify one because MakePattern can come up with effectively useless combinations.

$stupid = new Protector();
$stupid->Pattern = 'E:I:E:R:D:I:E';

This will base64-encode, flip the case, base64 again, reverse it, un-base64, flip the case, and then re-base64. Be aware that PHP's base64 decoder "correctly" ignores bad padding and unexpected characters, which is the only reason the base64-reverse-unbase64 thing will work. The resulting string will look like gibberish to people that don't know what base64 looks like, and un-base64 to gibberish for people that to know what base64 looks like.

If you need to encode the values in a certain way, you'd do so by just changing the pattern. It's important that you either hard-code the pattern or store it somewhere with the data, because without it, you'll have a hard time doing the decode. (I mean, it can be done by hand, but you don't want to have to do that.) I expect that your boss is going to give you specific instructions on the pattern, given that you don't have an option in using this utter failure at a class.

Now it's time to process our data. Let's pretend that $in contains your original array.

$out = array();
foreach($inas$k => $target) {
    foreach($keys_to_encodeas$target_key) {
        $stupid->ToEncode = $target[ $target_key ];
        $target[ $target_key ] = $stupid->Encode();
    }
    $out[$k] = $target;
}

This loops through the array of hashes, then inside each hash, only the keys we want to encode are encoded. The encoded hash is placed in a new array, $out. This is what you'd pass to your tree widget.

Decoding is just as easy. You've stated that your goal is letting users edit certain data in the tree widget, and you seem to want to protect the underlying keys. This tells me that you probably only need to deal with one of the hashes at a time. Therefore, I'm going to write this decode sample using only one value, $whatever.

$stupidest = new Protector();
$stupidest->Pattern = 'E:I:E:R:D:I:E'; // SAME PATTERN!$stupidest->ToDecode = $whatever;
$decoded = $stupidest->Decode();

Again, it's critical that you use the same decode pattern here.

As for the actual interaction with the tree widget, you're on your own there. I know only enough about ExtJS to know that it exists and that the GUI creators for it are really fun to play with.