Multidimensional array with polymorphic relation (tree structure) - php

Question

To understand what I want to do, here a simple expain : I want to create templates.
One "Template" has a "Panel"
This "Panel" has some "Item" and another "Panel"
We have to do this step by step until the last "Item"
I want something like this :
- Template
- Panel "Section"
- Panel "Slider"
- Panel "Slide 1"
- Item "Text 1"
- Item "Text 2"
- Item "Button"
- Panel "Slide 2"
- Panel "Buttons"
- Item "Button 1"
- Item "Button 2"
- Item "Text"
With the polymorphic relations from Laravel, I have 3 Models which are "Panel", "Item" and "PanelContent" (this one has some attributesn "parent_id", "contentable_id and "contentable_type" usefull to know which Panel is the parent, and which Item or Panel will be the content.
Obvisouly, my Models contains some function usefull to get contents and parent.
What I did
Currently, I use a recursive function to get Panel's children to build step by step an array with the structure I shown at the beginning.
private function getChildren(PanelContent $panelContent, string $parentName, string $key): void
{
$this->result['template']['global_panel'][$parentName][$key] = $panelContent->contentable->toArray();
if ($panelContent->contentable_type === 'panel') {
foreach($panelContent->contentable->contents as $key => $container) {
$this->getChildren($container, $container->contentable->name, $key);
}
}
}
What I want
I want to have something like this, like a tree structure.
$this->result = [
'template' => [
'id' => 1,
'name' => 'MySlider'
'contents' => [
'id' => 745,
'name' => 'slider',
'type' => 'panel',
'slides' => [
0 => [
'id' => 500,
'name' => 'slide',
'type' => 'panel'
'buttons' => [
0 => [
'id' => 877,
'name' => 'button',
'type' => 'item'
]
]
],
1 => [
'id' => 500,
'name' => 'slide',
'type' => 'panel'
'buttons' => [
0 => [
'id' => 877,
'name' => 'button',
'type' => 'item'
]
]
]
]
]
]
];
What I have for the moment
Currently, I have something like this :
$this->result = [
'template' => [
'id' => 1,
'name' => 'MySlider'
'contents' => [
'id' => 745,
'name' => 'slider',
'type' => 'panel'
],
'slides' => [
0 => [
'id' => 500,
'name' => 'slide',
'type' => 'panel'
],
1 => [
'id' => 500,
'name' => 'slide',
'type' => 'panel'
]
],
'buttons' => [
0 => [
'id' => 877,
'name' => 'button',
'type' => 'item'
],
1 => [
'id' => 877,
'name' => 'button',
'type' => 'item'
]
]
]
];
With this code, the result is "normal", because the key at this line is wrong :
$this->result['template']['global_panel'][$parentName][$key] = $panelContent->contentable->toArray();
But I really don't know how to do what I want with my data.
I hope my explains are fine. Do you have an idea about this ? How can I build properly my array (or json of course) ?
Thank you and have a nice day !

Answer 1

I've found a solution. Laravel has many helpers and there is one for array.
private function formatTemplateData(PanelContent $panelContent, string $path): void
{
Arr::set(
$this->result,
'template.data.' . $path,
"Je suis une data"
);
if ($panelContent->contentable_type === 'panel') {
foreach($panelContent->contentable->contents as $container) {
$newPath = $path . '.' . $container->contentable->name . $container->contentable->order;
$this->formatTemplateData($container, $newPath);
}
}
}
With the "set" function, I can use string to create dynamic path for my array.
For example :
"template.data.slider.slide.0.test"
Will be :
$array['template']['data']['slider']['slide'][0]['test']
Thanks for your help.