XF 2.2 Challenges with Changing Entity Property from SERIALIZED_ARRAY to JSON_ARRAY

[robdog]

I have a few legacy entities that I want to change from SERIALIZED_ARRAY to JSON_ARRAY. Is it as simple as just changing the entity property type or do you have to do something with the saved data in the database? Thanks.

 

[Jeremy P]

You would need to convert the saved data during the upgrade process (have a look at \XF\Install\InstallHelperTrait::entityColumnsToJson).

 

[Xon]

Here is a usage example in an add-on;

public function upgrade2040019Step3(array $stepParams)
{
   $position = $stepParams[0] ?? 0;
   $stepData = $stepParams[2] ?? [];

   return $this->entityColumnsToJson('SV\VoteTally:ThreadVoteCount', ['result','vote_maps','aliases'], $position, $stepData);
}

The return type is \XF\AddOn\StepResult|array|true|null. Returning false will error, and don't mark the return type as ?array for php 7.1 type hinting or it'll error.

 

[robdog]

Took me a second to get back here, but thanks for the answers!