README.md

Nocarrier\Hal

This is a library for creating documents in the application/hal+json and application/hal+xml hypermedia formats

It requires PHP 5.4 or later.

<?php
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

use Nocarrier\Hal;

$hal = new Hal('/orders');
$hal->addLink('next', '/orders?page=2');
$hal->addLink('search', '/orders?id={order_id}');

$resource = new Hal(
    '/orders/123',
    array(
        'total' => 30.00,
        'currency' => 'USD',
    )
);

$resource->addLink('customer', '/customer/bob', array('title' => 'Bob Jones <bob@jones.com>'));
$hal->addResource('order', $resource);
echo $hal->asJson();
echo $hal->asXml();

Installation

The preferred method of installation is via packagist as this provides the PSR-0 autoloader functionality. The following command will download and install the latest version of the Hal library into your project.

php composer.phar require nocarrier/hal

Alternatively, clone the project and install into your project manually.

License

Nocarrier\Hal is licensed under the MIT license.

Usage

Creating Hal Resources

A Hal resource can be created with no values set:

$hal = new \Nocarrier\Hal();

with a URI for the resource:

$hal = new \Nocarrier\Hal('/orders');

and also with an array of data:

$hal = new \Nocarrier\Hal('/orders', ['customerId' => 'CUS1234']);

Hal resources can also be created from existing XML or JSON documents:

$hal = \Nocarrier\Hal::fromJson($jsonString);

$hal = \Nocarrier\Hal::fromXml($xmlString);

$hal = \Nocarrier\Hal::fromXml($simpleXMLElement);

The depth of embedded resources parsed with both these methods is controlled by a second argument, which defaults to 0:

$hal = \Nocarrier\Hal::fromJson($jsonString, 5);

Getting Representations

The Hal resource can be formatted as JSON or XML:

$hal = new \Nocarrier\Hal('/orders', ['customerId' => 'CUS1234']);
$hal->asJson();

which with a first argument of true for pretty printing:

$hal = new \Nocarrier\Hal('/orders', ['customerId' => 'CUS1234']);
$hal->asJson(true);

gives:

{
    "customerId": "CUS1234",
    "_links": {
        "self": {"href": "/orders"}
    }
}

and

$hal = new \Nocarrier\Hal('/orders', ['customerId' => 'CUS1234']);
$hal->asXml(true);

gives:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<resource href="/orders">
    <customerId>CUS1234</customerId>
</resource>

Data

The data can be set through setData and read with getData:

$hal = new \Nocarrier\Hal('/orders');
$hal->setData(['customerId' => 'CUS1234']);
$hal->getData();

Using array keys in the data for the XML representation can be done by prefixing the key with @:

$hal = new \Nocarrier\Hal('/orders');
$hal->setData(['customerId' => ['CUS1234', '@type' => 'legacy']]);

gives:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<resource href="/orders">
    <customerId value="CUS1234" type="legacy"/>
</resource>

The @ is ignored if JSON is rendered:

{
    "customerId": {
        "value": "CUS1234",
        "type":" legacy"
    },
    "_links": {
        "self": {"href": "/orders"}
    }
}

Links

Links can be added to the resource by providing the rel identifying them and a URI:

$hal = new \Nocarrier\Hal('/orders', ['customerId' => 'CUS1234']);
$hal->addLink('next', '/orders?page=2');
$hal->addLink('search', '/orders?id={order_id}');

gives:

{
    "customerId": "CUS1234",
    "_links": {
        "self": {
            "href": "/orders"
        },
        "next": {
            "href": "/orders?page=2"
        },
        "search": {
            "href": "/orders?id={order_id}"
        }
    }
}

If a Hal object has been created from a response returned from elsewhere it can be helpful to retrieve the links from it.

$json = '{
     "customerId": "CUS1234",
     "_links": {
         "self": {
             "href": "/orders"
         },
         "next": {
             "href": "/orders?page=2"
         },
         "search": {
             "href": "/orders?id={order_id}"
         }
     }
 }';

$hal = \Nocarrier\Hal::fromJson($json);

foreach($hal->getLinks() as $rel => $links) {
    echo $rel."\n";
    foreach($links as $link) {
        echo (string) $link."\n";
    }
}

next
/orders?page=2
search
/orders?id={order_id}

and

$json = '{
     "customerId": "CUS1234",
     "_links": {
         "self": {
             "href": "/orders"
         },
         "next": {
             "href": "/orders?page=2"
         },
         "search": {
             "href": "/orders?id={order_id}"
         }
     }
 }';
$hal = \Nocarrier\Hal::fromJson($json);
foreach($hal->getLink('next') as $link) {
    echo (string) $link."\n";
}

outputs:

/orders?page=2

Embedded Resources

As well as linking to resources so that the client can fetch them they can be directly embedded in the resource.

$hal = new \Nocarrier\Hal('/orders', ['customerId' => 'CUS1234']);

$resource = new \Nocarrier\Hal(
    '/orders/123',
    array(
        'total' => 30.00,
        'currency' => 'USD',
    )
);

$resource->addLink('customer', '/customer/bob', array('title' => 'Bob Jones <bob@jones.com>'));
$hal->addResource('order', $resource);

outputs:

{
    "customerId": "CUS1234",
    "_links": {
        "self": {
            "href": "/orders"
        }
    },
    "_embedded": {
        "order": [
            {
                "total": 30,
                "currency": "USD",
                "_links": {
                    "self": {
                        "href": "/orders/123"
                    },
                    "customer": {
                        "href": "/customer/bob",
                        "title": "Bob Jones <bob@jones.com>"
                    }
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}