msgpack.php

A pure PHP implementation of the MessagePack serialization format.

Features

• Fully compliant with the latest MessagePack specification
• Supports streaming unpacking
• Supports unsigned 64-bit integers handling
• Supports object serialization
• Fully tested
• Relatively fast

Table of contents

• Installation
• Usage
  • Packing
    • Packing options
  • Unpacking
    • Unpacking options
• Custom types
  • Type objects
  • Type transformers
  • Extensions
    • Timestamp
    • Application-specific extensions
• Exceptions
• Tests
  • Fuzzing
  • Performance
• License

Installation

The recommended way to install the library is through Composer:

composer require rybakit/msgpack

Usage

Packing

To pack values you can either use an instance of a Packer:

$packer = new Packer();
$packed = $packer->pack($value);

or call a static method on the MessagePack class:

$packed = MessagePack::pack($value);

In the examples above, the method pack automatically packs a value depending on its type. However, not all PHP types can be uniquely translated to MessagePack types. For example, the MessagePack format defines map and array types, which are represented by a single array type in PHP. By default, the packer will pack a PHP array as a MessagePack array if it has sequential numeric keys, starting from 0 and as a MessagePack map otherwise:

$mpArr1 = $packer->pack([1, 2]);               // MP array [1, 2]
$mpArr2 = $packer->pack([0 => 1, 1 => 2]);     // MP array [1, 2]
$mpMap1 = $packer->pack([0 => 1, 2 => 3]);     // MP map {0: 1, 2: 3}
$mpMap2 = $packer->pack([1 => 2, 2 => 3]);     // MP map {1: 2, 2: 3}
$mpMap3 = $packer->pack(['a' => 1, 'b' => 2]); // MP map {a: 1, b: 2}

However, sometimes you need to pack a sequential array as a MessagePack map. To do this, use the packMap method:

$mpMap = $packer->packMap([1, 2]); // {0: 1, 1: 2}

Here is a list of type-specific packing methods:

$packer->packNil();           // MP nil
$packer->packBool(true);      // MP bool
$packer->packInt(42);         // MP int
$packer->packFloat(M_PI);     // MP float (32 or 64)
$packer->packFloat32(M_PI);   // MP float 32
$packer->packFloat64(M_PI);   // MP float 64
$packer->packStr('foo');      // MP str
$packer->packBin("\x80");     // MP bin
$packer->packArray([1, 2]);   // MP array
$packer->packMap(['a' => 1]); // MP map
$packer->packExt(1, "\xaa");  // MP ext

Check the "Custom types" section below on how to pack custom types.

Packing options

The Packer object supports a number of bitmask-based options for fine-tuning the packing process (defaults are in bold):

| Name | Description | | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | FORCE_STR | Forces PHP strings to be packed as MessagePack UTF-8 strings | | FORCE_BIN | Forces PHP strings to be packed as MessagePack binary data | | DETECT_STR_BIN | Detects MessagePack str/bin type automatically | | | | | FORCE_ARR | Forces PHP arrays to be packed as MessagePack arrays | | FORCE_MAP | Forces PHP arrays to be packed as MessagePack maps | | DETECT_ARR_MAP | Detects MessagePack array/map type automatically | | | | | FORCE_FLOAT32 | Forces PHP floats to be packed as 32-bits MessagePack floats | | FORCE_FLOAT64 | Forces PHP floats to be packed as 64-bits MessagePack floats |

The type detection mode (DETECT_STR_BIN/DETECT_ARR_MAP) adds some overhead which can be noticed when you pack large (16- and 32-bit) arrays or strings. However, if you know the value type in advance (for example, you only work with UTF-8 strings or/and associative arrays), you can eliminate this overhead by forcing the packer to use the appropriate type, which will save it from running the auto-detection routine. Another option is to explicitly specify the value type. The library provides 2 auxiliary classes for this, Map and Bin. Check the "Custom types" section below for details.

Examples:

// detect str/bin type and pack PHP 64-bit floats (doubles) to MP 32-bit floats
$packer = new Packer(PackOptions::DETECT_STR_BIN | PackOptions::FORCE_FLOAT32);

// these will throw MessagePack\Exception\InvalidOptionException
$packer = new Packer(PackOptions::FORCE_STR | PackOptions::FORCE_BIN);
$packer = new Packer(PackOptions::FORCE_FLOAT32 | PackOptions::FORCE_FLOAT64);

Unpacking

To unpack data you can either use an instance of a BufferUnpacker:

$unpacker = new BufferUnpacker();

$unpacker->reset($packed);
$value = $unpacker->unpack();

or call a static method on the MessagePack class:

$value = MessagePack::unpack($packed);

If the packed data is received in chunks (e.g. when reading from a stream), use the tryUnpack method, which attempts to unpack data and returns an array of unpacked messages (if any) instead of throwing an InsufficientDataException:

while ($chunk = ...) {
    $unpacker->append($chunk);
    if ($messages = $unpacker->tryUnpack()) {
        return $messages;
    }
}

If you want to unpack from a specific position in a buffer, use seek:

$unpacker->seek(42); // set position equal to 42 bytes
$unpacker->seek(-8); // set position to 8 bytes before the end of the buffer

To skip bytes from the current position, use skip:

$unpacker->skip(10); // set position to 10 bytes ahead of the current position

To get the number of remaining (unread) bytes in the buffer:

$unreadBytesCount = $unpacker->getRemainingCount();

To check whether the buffer has unread data:

$hasUnreadBytes = $unpacker->hasRemaining();

If needed, you can remove already read data from the buffer by calling:

$releasedBytesCount = $unpacker->release();

With the read method you can read raw (packed) data:

$packedData = $unpacker->read(2); // read 2 bytes

Besides the above methods BufferUnpacker provides type-specific unpacking methods, namely:

$unpacker->unpackNil();   // PHP null
$unpacker->unpackBool();  // PHP bool
$unpacker->unpackInt();   // PHP int
$unpacker->unpackFloat(); // PHP float
$unpacker->unpackStr();   // PHP UTF-8 string
$unpacker->unpackBin();   // PHP binary string
$unpacker->unpackArray(); // PHP sequential array
$unpacker->unpackMap();   // PHP associative array
$unpacker->unpackExt();   // PHP MessagePack\Type\Ext object

Unpacking options

The BufferUnpacker object supports a number of bitmask-based options for fine-tuning the unpacking process (defaults are in bold):

| Name | Description | | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | BIGINT_AS_STR | Converts overflowed integers to strings ^[1] | | BIGINT_AS_GMP | Converts overflowed integers to GMP objects ^[2] | | BIGINT_AS_DEC | Converts overflowed integers to Decimal\Decimal objects ^[3] |

1. The binary MessagePack format has unsigned 64-bit as its largest integer data type, but PHP does not support such integers, which means that an overflow can occur during unpacking.

2. Make sure the GMP extension is enabled.

3. Make sure the Decimal extension is enabled.

Examples:

$packedUint64 = "\xcf"."\xff\xff\xff\xff"."\xff\xff\xff\xff";

$unpacker = new BufferUnpacker($packedUint64);
var_dump($unpacker->unpack()); // string(20) "18446744073709551615"

$unpacker = new BufferUnpacker($packedUint64, UnpackOptions::BIGINT_AS_GMP);
var_dump($unpacker->unpack()); // object(GMP) {...}

$unpacker = new BufferUnpacker($packedUint64, UnpackOptions::BIGINT_AS_DEC);
var_dump($unpacker->unpack()); // object(Decimal\Decimal) {...}

Custom types

In addition to the basic types, the library provides functionality to serialize and deserialize arbitrary types. This can be done in several ways, depending on your use case. Let's take a look at them.

Type objects

If you need to serialize an instance of one of your classes into one of the basic MessagePack types, the best way to do this is to implement the CanBePacked interface in the class. A good example of such a class is the Map type class that comes with the library. This