Question

I have a code that encodes a javascript object into something like this:

<script>
    var php_string='array("one"=>"value_one","two"=>"value_two")';
</script>

Now I would like to know how can I convert this into that:

{
    "one":"value_one",
    "two":"value_two"
}

The content of php_string is sent to PHP on a $_POST variable. Is there anyway to do that or should I use JSON instead?

EDIT

As asked, here is the code that made my php_string:

function encodeFormOptions(inputsWrapper){
    var the_serialize=$(inputsWrapper).find(":input").serializeArray();
    var text="array(";
    $.each( the_serialize, function( key, value ) {
        text+='"'+value["name"]+'"=>'+'"'+value["value"]+'",';
    });
    if (text.charAt(text.length-1)==",")
        text=text.substring(0,text.length-1);
    text+=");";
    return text;
}

EDIT 2

I forgot to say that I need this conversion in pure Javascript. In other words, I need to parse the array string into a javascript Object because when a click on a certain button on my page occurs, I need to read the values that are currently inside php_string.

EDIT 3 (The full reason of the php_string)

I tried to abstract the problem but, now I see that I shouldn’t have done it.

I have a page form that have some input’s and multiple buttons named “options”

When I click on any of these buttons, a popup appears with dynamic fields (derived from the option selected on a select field) on it and, when I fill all the input’s, I create the php_string and save it on an hidden field.

Now I want that when I click again on one of the “options” buttons, I could read what I saved on the hidden field, in order to put the default values that the popup input’s should show if the selected option of the select field doesn’t change.

The hidden field is then parsed on PHP.

Answer 1

Edit:

It seems this may be closer what you are looking for:

<script>
    var php_string = 'array("one"=>"value_one","two"=>"value_two")';
    var php_string = JSON.parse(php_string.replace(/array\(/g, '{').replace(/\)/g, '}').replace(/=>/g, ':'));
</script>

It’s certainly not the most elegant way to handle it though, so consider refactoring what is producing that output. For example, you could send json from the client and use json_decode in the server side.