Solved JSON file constantly breaks

Hi everyone

I made a plugin that can lock/unlock doors, I save all the doors in a JSON file. This is what the JSON file normally looks like:

Spoiler: JSON code

Code:

{
    
[
{
"key_name": "Gemeentehuis",
"coords": {
"x": 265,
"y": 13,
"z": 286
}
},
{
"key_name": "Gemeentehuis",
"coords": {
"x": 261,
"y": 13,
"z": 296
}
},
{
"key_name": "Gemeentehuis",
"coords": {
"x": 262,
"y": 12,
"z": 294
}
},
{
"key_name": "Gemeentehuis",
"coords": {
"x": 261,
"y": 13,
"z": 295
}
}
]
}

But whenever I remove something from the JSON file, with this code:
The code basically checks if the touched block is the same as the block in the JSON file, if it is the same it will remove it and update the JSON file.

Spoiler: PHP Code

PHP:

if(isset($this->unlockSession[$player->getName()])){
            if($this->unlockSession[$player->getName()]){
                $event->setCancelled();
                $x = $event->getBlock()->getX();
                $y = $event->getBlock()->getY();
                $z = $event->getBlock()->getZ();
                $json_file = (array) json_decode(file_get_contents($this->path, true));
                $index = 0;
                foreach ($json_file as $value) {
                    $x_j = $value->coords->x;
                    $y_j = $value->coords->y;
                    $z_j = $value->coords->z;
                    var_dump(array($x_j, $y_j, $z_j));

                    if ($x == $x_j && $z == $z_j) {
                        if(abs($y - $y_j) <= 1 || abs($y_j - $y) <= 1) {
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                    $index += 1;
                }
                var_dump($json_file);
                echo "------------------------------------\n";
                var_dump($json_file[$index]);
                echo "------------------------------------\n";
                unset($json_file[$index]);
                var_dump($json_file);
                $new_json = json_encode($json_file, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
                file_put_contents($this->path, $new_json);
                $player->sendMessage("§aDe vergrendeling is opgeheven!");
                unset($this->unlockSession[$player->getName()]);
            }
        }
    }

Now after I run this code, my JSON file turns like this:

Spoiler: JSON code after

Code:

{
    "1": {
        "key_name": "Gemeentehuis",
        "coords": {
            "x": 261,
            "y": 13,
            "z": 296
        }
    },
    "2": {
        "key_name": "Gemeentehuis",
        "coords": {
            "x": 262,
            "y": 12,
            "z": 294
        }
    },
    "3": {
        "key_name": "Gemeentehuis",
        "coords": {
            "x": 261,
            "y": 13,
            "z": 295
        }
    }
}

Suddenly there appears "1", "2" and "3". I don't know from where this comes or why it is there.
Instead I expect this to happen:

Spoiler: Expected JSON code

Code:

[
    {
        "key_name": "Gemeentehuis",
        "coords": {
            "x": 261,
            "y": 13,
            "z": 296
        }
    },
    {
        "key_name": "Gemeentehuis",
        "coords": {
            "x": 262,
            "y": 12,
            "z": 294
        }
    },
    {
        "key_name": "Gemeentehuis",
        "coords": {
            "x": 261,
            "y": 13,
            "z": 295
        }
    }
]

You can see my whole code here: https://hastebin.com/azoharuhok.xml

I hope someone can help!

 

maybe try using associative arrays and serialising it when saving to the file and when reading it just unserialise it

 

so something like:

PHP:

$keys = [];


$temp = array(
    'KeyName' => 'exampleKeyName',
    'x' => 1,
    'y' => 2,
    'z' => 3
);

array_push($keys, $temp);

var_dump($keys);

//echo $temp['KeyName'];

Every time a new lock is made push an associative array into $keys

 

When loading or saving the data

PHP:

serialize($keys);

unserialize($keys);

 

The problem is that you are using unset, which will remove a value from the array, but not reorder the indices.
See this example:

Spoiler: output

PHP:

<?php

$arr = ["hello", "this", "isatest"];
var_dump($arr);
unset($arr[0]);
var_dump($arr);

will output

Code:

array(3) {
  [0]=>
  string(5) "hello"
  [1]=>
  string(4) "this"
  [2]=>
  string(7) "isatest"
}
array(2) {
  [1]=>
  string(4) "this"
  [2]=>
  string(7) "isatest"
}

As you can see, the array now starts at one.
If you will then json encode it, in order to preserve that order, the json encoder will put those indices there.
You could use array_values() before serialising it to json, or use array_splice() instead of unset.
See this Stackoverflow post for more information.

 

Hi, thank you very much! I now understand why it didn't work and I fixed the problem. Have a nice day