PHP: Convert Tree HTML tag to an array

Question

I\'m using jsTree and I need to convert this HTML tag tree code

• to a PHP array. The jsTree HTML tag will be passed to PHP to be parsed and

Answer 1

Regarding:

My problem I'm having a hard time parsing the string HTML tag and save it in a PHP array.

I suggest that you use an HTML parser, such as simplehtmldom. This will allow you to traverse over HTML DOM just the way you want.

Here is a quick and dirty UL walking script:

children as $li )
        {
            if ( $li->tag != "li" )
            {
                continue;
            }
            $arar = array( );
            foreach( $li->children as $ulul )
            {
                if ( $ulul->tag != "ul" )
                {
                    continue;
                }
                WalkUL( $ulul, $arar );
            }
            $ar[ $li->find( "a", 0 )->plaintext ] = $arar;
        }
    }
    WalkUL( $DOM->find( "ul", 0 ), $ARR );
    print_r( $ARR );
?>

Its output, not exactly as you wanted it but close:

Array
(
    [Folder 1] => Array
        (
            [Child 1.1] => Array
                (
                )
            [Folder 1.1] => Array
                (
                    [Child 1.1.1] => Array
                        (
                        )
                )
            [Folder 1.2] => Array
                (
                    [Child 1.2.1] => Array
                        (
                        )
                    [Child 1.2.2] => Array
                        (
                        )
                )
        )
    [Folder 2] => Array
        (
            [Child 2.1] => Array
                (
                )
            [Child 2.2] => Array
                (
                )
        )
    [Outer Child] => Array
        (
        )
)