NAME

       PHP::Serialization - simple flexible means of converting the output of PHP's serialize()
       into the equivalent Perl memory structure, and vice versa.

SYNOPSIS

           use PHP::Serialization qw(serialize unserialize);
           my $encoded = serialize({ a => 1, b => 2});
           my $hashref = unserialize($encoded);

DESCRIPTION

       Provides a simple, quick means of serializing perl memory structures (including object
       data!) into a format that PHP can deserialize() and access, and vice versa.

       NOTE: Converts PHP arrays into Perl Arrays when the PHP array used exclusively numeric
       indexes, and into Perl Hashes then the PHP array did not.

FUNCTIONS

       Exportable functions..

   serialize($var,[optional $asString,[optional $sortHashes]])
       Serializes the memory structure pointed to by $var, and returns a scalar value of encoded
       data.

       If the optional $asString is true, $var will be encoded as string if it is double or
       float.

       If the optional $sortHashes is true, all hashes will be sorted before serialization.

       NOTE: Will recursively encode objects, hashes, arrays, etc.

       SEE ALSO: ->encode()

   unserialize($encoded,[optional CLASS])
       Deserializes the encoded data in $encoded, and returns a value (be it a hashref, arrayref,
       scalar, etc) representing the data structure serialized in $encoded_string.

       If the optional CLASS is specified, any objects are blessed into CLASS::$serialized_class.
       Otherwise, O bjects are blessed into PHP::Serialization::Object::$serialized_class. (which
       has no methods)

       SEE ALSO: ->decode()

METHODS

       Functionality available if using the object interface..

   decode($encoded_string,[optional CLASS])
       Deserializes the encoded data in $encoded, and returns a value (be it a hashref, arrayref,
       scalar, etc) representing the data structure serialized in $encoded_string.

       If the optional CLASS is specified, any objects are blessed into CLASS::$serialized_class.
       Otherwise, Objects are blessed into PHP::Serialization::Object::$serialized_class. (which
       has no methods)

       SEE ALSO: unserialize()

   encode($reference,[optional $asString,[optional $sortHashes]])
       Serializes the memory structure pointed to by $reference, and returns a scalar value of
       encoded data.

       If the optional $asString is true, $reference will be encoded as string if it is double or
       float.

       If the optional $sortHashes is true, all hashes will be sorted before serialization.

       NOTE: Will recursively encode objects, hashes, arrays, etc.

       SEE ALSO: serialize()

TODO

       Support diffrent object types

AUTHOR INFORMATION

       Copyright (c) 2003 Jesse Brown <jbrown@cpan.org>. All rights reserved. This program is
       free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl
       itself.

       Various patches contributed by assorted authors on rt.cpan.org (as detailed in Changes
       file).

       Currently maintained by Tomas Doran <bobtfish@bobtfish.net>.

       Rewritten to solve all known bugs by Bjørn-Olav Strand <bolav@cpan.org>