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Serialize vs JSON?

Gravity Support Forums » Plugin Support » Gravity Forms

  1. sc0ttkclark
    Member

    Hey gang,

    I know WP chooses to use Serialization for their data storage, but what would the benefits be vs JSON? I'm mainly asking because I just pulled a value out of the DB table to manually change a field's type (changed type from s:8:"checkbox" to s:5:"radio"), when I put it back my form was nuked and that change was the only thing I did. Now that I try, I can't seem to get the value stored in the DB to even unserialize for other forms, so I'm thinking maybe it's my GUI or something else...

    Anyways, I'm wondering if you'll eventually go the JSON method as it isn't as finicky. Also wondering if anyone else has had the same issue editing the form_meta serialized array for a form.

    Posted 14 years ago on Tuesday August 17, 2010 | Permalink

  2. Carl Hancock
    Administrator

    Here is some info from StackOverflow on the subject...

    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1306740/json-vs-serialized-array-in-database

    There are nesting limits with JSON, as well as some PHP capabilities with serialize that aren't available with JSON. There are some performance gains with JSON for encoding, but serialized is quicker to unserialize than JSON to decode...

    Really it sounds like it's a toss up with JSON having a portability advantage if you plan on using the data elsewhere. I don't think one is definitively better than the other, a lot of it is opinion and what you are comfortable using.

    Posted 14 years ago on Wednesday August 18, 2010 | Permalink

  3. sc0ttkclark
    Member

    Any thoughts on recovery of a serialized form meta string?

    Posted 14 years ago on Wednesday August 18, 2010 | Permalink

  4. Carl Hancock
    Administrator

    I can't speak to that, you'd be better off talking to Alex. I know the form meta has to be handled with care otherwise one wrong move and the form will have issues. I can give you his email address via IM if you wanted to ask him a question... or you can talk to him in Dallas next week as he will be there with the rest of the team.

    Posted 14 years ago on Wednesday August 18, 2010 | Permalink