How to organize JSON for faster info access? - php

Question

I've been experimenting with storing Vehicle info as JSON for a quicker way to access the vehicle images.
I have set up a table in my DB for JSON. The JSON is set up as shown below. All the vehicles are in this one JSON, along with all their image information. I'm not sure if this is the best way of storing the data. I want to be able to quickly search based on the VIN to get only the images associated with that VIN.
My Issues:
The loading speed of dynamically displaying associated vehicle images.
Not getting ONLY the associated images; other vehicle images are showing
Not sure if my JSON format makes sense (or is inefficient), haven't worked too much with JSON
Is there an easier way to set up the SQL table for querying a specific JSON?
Possible Solutions (not limited to one):
Re-format JSON for simple referencing
Re-format Table for easier queries
Edit "code loops" for faster run time
I had previously set up loops on the InventoryPage, this is a dynamic page that uses $_GET to get the associated VIN, to iterate through my Database to get the images associated with the VIN. This worked, but took too long due to the amount of iterations required.
There are usually much more entries than this, I trimmed it way back for easier readability. We have an average of 100 vehicles with 20-60 images per vehicle.
Here is an example of my JSON format:
[{"vin": "JF1GR89658L827860", "images": [{"image":
"https://cdn04.carsforsale.com/3/420970/23594569/1133776572.jpg?
dt=100320180034", "width": 800, "height": 600}, {"image":
"https://cdn04.carsforsale.com/3/420970/23594569/1133776606.jpg?
dt=100320180034", "width": 800, "height": 600}]},
{"vin": "6Y86G433753", "images": [{"image":
"https://cdn04.carsforsale.com/3/420970/23684711/1135715340.jpg?
dt=100620180134", "width": 800, "height": 600}, {"image":
"https://cdn04.carsforsale.com/3/420970/23684711/1135715371.jpg?
dt=100620180134", "width": 800, "height": 600}]}]
The code I currently have to iterate through the JSON and find the associated images, which I think incorrectly displays images from different vehicles:
foreach ($vehicles as $vehicle)
{
if ($vehicle['vin'] === $vin) {
$last_element = ',';
while ($vehicle['images']) {
echo "{";
echo "src: '" . $vehicle['images'][0]['image'] . "',";
echo "h: " . $vehicle['images'][0]['height'] . ",";
echo "w: " . $vehicle['images'][0]['width'];
echo "}" . $last_element;
}
break;
}
}
Expected output from above "code loops" (for image slider):
{
src: "image_link",
h: vehicle_height,
w: vehicle_width
}

Answer 1

Don't try to create JSON by hand. Construct an array with all the data, then call json_encode().
$json_array = array();
foreach ($vehicles as $vehicle)
{
if ($vehicle['vin'] = $vin) {
foreach ($vehicle['images'] as $image) {
$json_array[] = ['src' => $image['image'], 'h' => $image['height'], 'w' => $image['width']];
}
break;
}
}
echo json_encode($json_array);
You might also consider making the JSON column an object rather than an array, with vin as the keys. Then you wouldn't need a loop, you could just use $vehicle[$vin]. You could also use JSON_SEARCH() in your MySQL query to just extract that element instead of the whole array.

Answer 2

This is kind of an opinionated answer, but I really don't see the benefit of using a JSON column for this. I think it looks like the data you have is a better fit for traditional related tables. I think JSON columns are great for storing more unstructured data, sets of different objects with different properties. But you have a set of similar objects, each a flat list with exactly the same properties. Image records would fit perfectly in their own table, possibly with a relationship to a different table with other VIN-related data, and I think retrieving related data would be simpler and more efficient that way. Just my two cents, and I know it doesn't really answer the question directly, but it's a bit much for a comment.