Question

This php script adds an element to one of the JSON objects (arrays).

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php

$filename = 'composer.json';
$obj = json_decode(file_get_contents($filename, true));

if (null === $obj) {
   throw new Exception(json_last_error()); // this will just be an error code
}

$obj->require = (object) array_merge((array) $obj->require, array('friendsofsymfony/user-bundle' => "*"));

file_put_contents(
    $filename,
    json_encode($obj)
);

The problem is, it messes up the file format.

Before using the script, the file I’m editing looks like this:

{
    "name": "symfony/framework-standard-edition",
    "description": "The \"Symfony Standard Edition\" distribution",
    "autoload": {
        "psr-0": { "": "src/" }
    },
    "require": {
        "php": ">=5.3.3",
        "symfony/symfony": "2.1.*",
        "doctrine/orm": ">=2.2.3,<2.4-dev",
        "doctrine/doctrine-bundle": "1.0.*",
        "twig/extensions": "1.0.*",
        "symfony/assetic-bundle": "2.1.*",
        "symfony/swiftmailer-bundle": "2.1.*",
        "symfony/monolog-bundle": "2.1.*",
        "sensio/distribution-bundle": "2.1.*",
        "sensio/framework-extra-bundle": "2.1.*",
        "sensio/generator-bundle": "2.1.*",
        "jms/security-extra-bundle": "1.2.*",
        "jms/di-extra-bundle": "1.1.*"
    },
    "scripts": {
        "post-install-cmd": [
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::buildBootstrap",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::clearCache",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installAssets",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installRequirementsFile"
        ],
        "post-update-cmd": [
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::buildBootstrap",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::clearCache",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installAssets",
            "Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installRequirementsFile"
        ]
    },
    "minimum-stability": "dev",
    "extra": {
        "symfony-app-dir": "app",
        "symfony-web-dir": "web"
    }
}

After I run the script; I get this:

{"name":"symfony\/framework-standard-edition","description":"The \"Symfony Standard Edition\" distribution","autoload":{"psr-0":{"_empty_":"src\/"}},"require":{"php":">=5.3.3","symfony\/symfony":"2.1.*","doctrine\/orm":">=2.2.3,<2.4-dev","doctrine\/doctrine-bundle":"1.0.*","twig\/extensions":"1.0.*","symfony\/assetic-bundle":"2.1.*","symfony\/swiftmailer-bundle":"2.1.*","symfony\/monolog-bundle":"2.1.*","sensio\/distribution-bundle":"2.1.*","sensio\/framework-extra-bundle":"2.1.*","sensio\/generator-bundle":"2.1.*","jms\/security-extra-bundle":"1.2.*","jms\/di-extra-bundle":"1.1.*","friendsofsymfony\/user-bundle":"*"},"scripts":{"post-install-cmd":["Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::buildBootstrap","Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::clearCache","Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installAssets","Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installRequirementsFile"],"post-update-cmd":["Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::buildBootstrap","Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::clearCache","Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installAssets","Sensio\\Bundle\\DistributionBundle\\Composer\\ScriptHandler::installRequirementsFile"]},"minimum-stability":"dev","extra":{"symfony-app-dir":"app","symfony-web-dir":"web"}}

All newlines, etc. are lost.

My PHP version is 5.3.10, which means I can’t use PHP 5.4 which has the “PRETTY_PRINT” option for encoding.

Is there a way to keep my file structure in PHP 5.3.10 using json_encode();?

Answer 1

Use print_r:

$pretty_json = print_r(json_decode($arr, true), true);

Realized that you need json file exactly, check this function