PHP - Right way to create an array with HTMLvalues

Question

What is the best way to create a PHP array with HTML values in it? I need to be able to encode it to JSON and decode it successfully.

Ex: My PHP array looks like this:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [Name] => <a href="http://gotourl.com?user=john+vz">john</a>
            [Sex] => M
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [Name] => <a href="http://gotourl.com?user=sue+hp">sue</a>
            [sex] => F
        )
)

You can try passing values, but no HTML. You can generate html and use values from json to iterate it over with javascript or anything you want. — Elias Nicolas, Sep 18 '15 at 07:16
Maybe [this](http://stackoverflow.com/q/5064561/1679537) can help you. — xlecoustillier, Sep 18 '15 at 07:16

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 18 '15 at 07:22

I don't know how you handle your data, or if you're using a JS Framework, but this is a small example, how it could work

$htmlAnchors = array (
    array (
            "Name" => '<a href="http://gotourl.com?user=john+vz">john</a>',
            "Sex" => "M"
        ),
    array(
            "Name" => '<a href="http://gotourl.com?user=sue+hp">sue</a>',
            "Sex" => "F"
        )
);

$jsonOutput = json_encode( $htmlAnchors );
?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>TODO supply a title</title>
        <meta charset="UTF-8">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    </head>
    <body>

        <div>TODO write content</div>
        <div id="anchors">
            <!--insert links here-->
        </div>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            var json = <?php echo $jsonOutput; ?>;
            json.forEach( function( entry ) {
                var anchors = document.getElementById( "anchors" );
                anchors.innerHTML = anchors.innerHTML + entry.Name + "</br>";
            });
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 18 '15 at 07:22

Just save the values, not the html structure.

$array   = array();
$array[] = array(
    "link"  => "http://gotourl.com?user=john+vz",
    "name"  => "john"
    , "sex" => "M"
);
$array[] = array(
    "link"  => "http://gotourl.com?user=sue+hp",
    "name"  => "sue"
    , "sex" => "F"
);
$string = json_encode($array);

transmit string and decode like:

$links = json_decode($string);
foreach ($links as $value) {
    printf('<a href="%s">%s Sex: %s</a>', $value['link'], $value['name'], $value['sex']);
}

You could think of any other structure to save the values. You don't need to save it using KVP, you could use nested arrays with named keys.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 18 '15 at 07:23

PHP's json_encode function does all the hard work for you. You can just create your array and encode it like this:

$people = array(
    array
    (
        'Name' => '<a href="http://gotourl.com?user=john+vz">john</a>',
        'Sex' => 'M'
    ),
    array(
        'Name' => '<a href="http://gotourl.com?user=sue+hp">sue</a>',
        'sex' => F
    )
);

$json = json_encode($people);

PHP - Right way to create an array with HTMLvalues

3 Answers3