Streaming newline delimited JSON (NDJSON) parser and encoder, built on top of React PHP

Table of Contents

• Usage
  • Decoder
  • Encoder
• Install
• License
• More

The Decoder (parser) class can be used to make sure you only get back complete, valid JSON elements when reading from a stream. It wraps a given ReadableStreamInterface and exposes its data through the same interface, but emits the JSON elements as parsed values instead of just chunks of strings:

{"name":"test","active":true}\r\n
"hello w\u00f6rld"\r\n

$stdin = new Stream(STDIN, $loop);

$stream = new Decoder($stdin);

$stream->on('data', function ($data) {
    // data is a parsed element form the JSON stream
    // line 1: $data = (object)array('name' => 'test', 'active' => true);
    // line 2: $data = "hello wörld";
    var_dump($data);
});

React's streams emit chunks of data strings and make no assumption about their lengths. These chunks do not necessarily represent complete JSON elements, as an element may be broken up into multiple chunks. This class reassembles these elements by buffering incomplete ones.

The Decoder supports the same parameters as the underlying json_decode() function. This means that, by default, JSON objects will be emitted as a stdClass. This behavior can be controlled through the optional constructor parameters:

$stream = new Decoder($stdin, true);

$stream->on('data', function ($data) {
    // JSON objects will be emitted as assoc arrays now
});

If the underlying stream emits an `error` event or the plain stream contains
any data that does not represent a valid NDJson stream,
it will emit an `error` event and then `close` the input stream:

```php
$stream->on('error', function (Exception $error) {
    // an error occured, stream will close next
});

If the underlying stream emits an end event, it will flush any incomplete data from the buffer, thus either possibly emitting a final data event followed by an end event on success or an error event for incomplete/invalid JSON data as above:

$stream->on('end', function () {
    // stream successfully ended, stream will close next
});

If either the underlying stream or the Decoder is closed, it will forward the close event:

$stream->on('close', function () {
    // stream closed
    // possibly after an "end" event or due to an "error" event
});

The close(): void method can be used to explicitly close the Decoder and its underlying stream:

$stream->close();

The pipe(WritableStreamInterface $dest, array $options = array(): WritableStreamInterface method can be used to forward all data to the given destination stream. Please note that the Decoder emits decoded/parsed data events, while many (most?) writable streams expect only data chunks:

$stream->pipe($logger);

For more details, see React's ReadableStreamInterface.

The Encoder (serializer) class can be used to make sure anything you write to a stream ends up as valid JSON elements in the resulting NDJSON stream. It wraps a given WritableStreamInterface and accepts its data through the same interface, but handles any data as complete JSON elements instead of just chunks of strings:

$stdout = new Stream(STDOUT, $loop);

$stream = new Encoder($stdout);

$stream->write(array('name' => 'test', 'active' => true));
$stream->write('hello wörld');

{"name":"test","active":true}\r\n
"hello w\u00f6rld"\r\n

The Encoder supports the same parameters as the underlying json_encode() function. This means that, by default, unicode characters will be escaped in the output. This behavior can be controlled through the optional constructor parameters:

$stream = new Encoder($stdout, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES | JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);

$stream->write('hello wörld');

"hello wörld"\r\n

Note that trying to pass the JSON_PRETTY_PRINT option will yield an InvalidArgumentException because it is not compatible with NDJSON.

If the underlying stream emits an error event or the given datacontains any data that can not be represented as a valid NDJSON stream, it will emit an error event and then close the input stream:

$stream->on('error', function (Exception $error) {
    // an error occured, stream will close next
});

If either the underlying stream or the Encoder is closed, it will forward the close event:

$stream->on('close', function () {
    // stream closed
    // possibly after an "end" event or due to an "error" event
});

The end(mixed $data = null): void method can be used to optionally emit any final data and then soft-close the Encoder and its underlying stream:

$stream->end();

The close(): void method can be used to explicitly close the Encoder and its underlying stream:

$stream->close();

For more details, see React's WritableStreamInterface.

The recommended way to install this library is through Composer. New to Composer?

This will install the latest supported version:

$ composer require clue/ndjson-react:^0.1

See also the CHANGELOG for details about version upgrades.

MIT

• If you want to learn more about processing streams of data, refer to the documentation of the underlying react/stream component.

• If you want to process compressed NDJSON files (.ndjson.gz file extension) you may want to use clue/zlib-react on the compressed input stream before passing the decompressed stream to the NDJSON decoder.

• If you want to create compressed NDJSON files (.ndjson.gz file extension) you may want to use clue/zlib-react on the resulting NDJSON encoder output stream before passing the compressed stream to the file output stream.