This project started out of a random Freelancer.com project post. The customer was requesting to convert a php serialized string to json and he wanted the project to be in C#. The project also referenced a C# PHP Serialization a.k.a Sharp Serialization Library that might offer some insight to achieve his request.

Since the Sharp Serialization Library was already written in C#, I simply converted the C# class to a PowerShell class to practice writing classes in PowerShell. And I was bored.

As it turned out, I tested a few serialized php arrays and they worked. After doing some more research, I came across another article by Gordon Breuer, who decided to use List<> objects (instead of Arraylists) and Dictionary<> object (instead of Hashtables) to cover all basis. I decided to use with his code instead.

There are a few things to note in my preliminary testing:

• I haven't tried to serialized php data; only deserialize/unserialize
• This only works on simple data types and structures such as arrays/hashtables. Any nested hashtables, jagged/multi-dimensional arrays will have to be done with additional code.

To use the PHPSerialization PowerShell Class, download the .psm1 file and either put it in one of your module locations or your desired location. Import-Module does not work. Instead, you will have to use the keyword "Using" and "Module" to get PS to recognize the class:

Using Module "C:\Users\Nicos\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\PHPSerialization\PHPSerializationClass.psm1"

Next, take a php serialized code and wrap it in a here string:

$phpstring = @"
a:9:{s:8:"playerId";s:12:"omp-id-84560";s:4:"type";s:5:"audio";s:6:"player";s:5:"html5";s:9:"timestamp";N;s:4:"page";s:59:"https://fakeaudiosite.com/view.php?id=123456789&section=1.0";s:3:"src";s:57:"https://fakeaudiosite/pluginfile.php/22639/14j_aug041.mp3";s:7:"browser";s:6:"chrome";s:8:"isMobile";b:0;s:5:"value";i:10;}"
"@

To see the results outputted directly to PS, type:

[PHPSerialization]::new().Deserialize($phpstring) 

If you want to sort it by key:

$phpdata = [PHPSerialization]::new().Deserialize($phpstring)
$phpdata.GetEnumerator() | Sort Key

Finally, if you want to convert the data to JSON:

ConvertTo-Json -InputObject $phpdata

Again, this came out of me trying my first crack at converting a C# class to a PowerShell class as well as having a strong belief that PowerShell can be used for more than just "Windows Administrative" tasks as many would like to believe. Many thinks to the original C# author Matt Palmerlee and Gordon Breuer for the PHP Serialization.