Storage

TemplateArray and DesignArray write a template and a design as arrays of scalars, for a JSON column or a file, and read them back:

$json = json_encode(TemplateArray::toArray($template), JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);
$template = TemplateArray::fromArray(json_decode($json, true, 512, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR));

The arrays

Each array has a version, 1 (TemplateArray::VERSION, DesignArray::VERSION). A template holds its code, name by locale, sku_pattern, supplier, pricing — its currency, its base and its prices and supplements in minor units by axis then value —, its axes with their values, its faces with their zones in millimetres and their photo_box, and its exclusions. A design holds its code, name, languages, artworks, templates and allowed values.

{"version": 1, "code": "unisex", "name": {"en": "Unisex shirt"}, "sku_pattern": "{design}{size}{colour}",
 "supplier": null, "pricing": {"currency": "CAD", "base": 2500, "prices": {"size": {"2X": 2800}}, "supplements": {}},
 "axes": [{"code": "size", "label": {"en": "Size"}, "values": [{"code": "M", "label": {"en": "M"}, "swatch": null,
   "supplier_name": null, "photos": {}, "channels": []}]}], "faces": [], "exclusions": []}

Reading back

fromArray() reads every value with the type it expects and builds the template or design through its constructors, so an array read back is checked as one built in code. An array of another version, a value of the wrong type — named by its path, template.axes[0].values[2].code — or a definition the constructors refuse throws InvalidDefinition.

Value codes of digits only, such as a size 0, are keys of integers once PHP decodes them; the readers accept them as the codes they are.