Catching different syntax with Regular Expression - php

Question

I'll have code embedded in HTML, it will look something like this:
<div id="someDiv">
{:
HTMLObject
id: form
background: blue
font: large
fields [
username: usr
password: pwd
]
foo: bar
:}
</div>
I am trying to write a regular expression that will take these HTMLObjects and break them into manageable arrays. I already have the regexp that will do the lines such as
id: form
However, I'm having trouble with making the regexp also match ones like
fields [
username: usr
password: pwd
]
Here is the function I have that performs these tasks:
function parseHTMLObjects($html) {
$details = preg_replace('/[{:]([^}]+):}/i', '$1', $html);
$details = trim(str_replace('HTMLObject', '', $details));
$dynamPattern = '/([^\[]+)\[([^\]]+)]/';
$dynamMatch = preg_match_all($dynamPattern, $details, $dynamMatches);
print_r($dynamMatches); // nothing is shown here
$findMatch = preg_match_all('/([^:]+):([^\n]+)/', $details, $matches);
$obs = array();
foreach($matches[0] as $o) {
$tmp = trim($o);
echo $tmp . "\n";
}
}
When I pass an HTML string like I demonstrated at the beginning of the page, the $findMatch regexp works fine, but nothing gets stored in the dynams one. Am I going about this in the wrong way?
Basically all I need is each object stored in an array, so from the sample HTML string above, this would be an ideal array:
Array() {
[0] => id: form
[1] => background: blue
[2] => font: large
[3] => fields [
username: usr
password: pwd
]
[4] => foo: bar
}
I have all the sorting and manipulation handled beyond that point, but like I said, I'm having trouble getting the same regexp that handles the colon style objects to also handle the bracket style objects.
If I need to use a different regexp and store the results in a different array that is fine too.

Answer 1

It would be easly made with some black sorcery called YAML or JSON with these syntaxes:
YAML
{:
HTMLObject:
id: form
background: blue
font: large
fields: [
username: usr,
password: pwd
]
foo: bar
:}
JSON
{:
{
"HTMLObject":{
"id": "form",
"background": "blue",
"font": "large",
"fields": [
{"usernamd": "usr"},
{"password": "pwd"}
],
"foo": "bar"
}
}
:}
Bu-bu-but why? 'Cuz it's natively parsed. No dirty RegExps.

Answer 2

I can't comment on posts yet, but definitely looking for conversion functions from one notation to php arrays is the way forward, json_decode is one, though your data is starting life as something else.
regex can be very tricky with complicated data that is often complex because it has some other structure to it that is better interpreted with other tools
PS if you do use json_decode in php at any point, don't get caught out by the second parameter - it needs to be set to 'true' to get an array !