Convert text file in to 2d javascript array using ajax & php

Question

So, I'm building myself a browser based rpg using Javascript. Originally, my level had a single layer and was loaded from a javascript 2d map array. However, I'm changing my code to allow support for multiple layers loaded from a file.

I can retrieve the file data without too many problems, however, I have no idea how to parse the information into useable arrays.

The contents of my text file are as follows;

LAYER
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
LAYER
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0

My Ajax and PHP for retrieving the level;

// JAVASCRIPT
    $.ajax({
            type: 'POST',
            url: 'lib/ajax.php',
            data: {method: 'getLevel'},
            success: function(data){

            },
            error: function(x, h, r){
                console.log(x, h, r);
            }
        })

// PHP FILE 2

public function getLevel(){
   $file = file_get_contents('../levels/level1.txt');
   echo $file;
}

There is an intermediate file handling all of my ajax requests, passing them to a functions class.

I can get my level data fine, I just don't know what to do with it once I have it.

I know I can get someway towards achieving this by adding newline characters at the end of each group, and parsing them that way. However, this will become a nightmare when implementing a tile editor in the future. Do you guys have any suggestions how to go about this? Would you suggest parsing at the php or javascript level, or both?

Answer 1

If you data is following this layout

LAYER
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
LAYER2
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 0, 0, 0

You can just do it like this

function parseLayer($text){
    $layers = array();
    $lines = explode("\n", $text);
    $lastLayer;

    $currArray = array();

    foreach($lines as $line){
        if(strpos($line, ",") === false){
            if(!empty($lastLayer)){
                $layers[$lastLayer] = $currArray;
                $currArray = array();
            }
            $lastLayer = trim($line);
        }else{
            $nodes = explode(",", $line);
            $nodeList = array();
            foreach($nodes as $node){
                $nodeList[] = trim($node);
            }
            $currArray[] = $nodeList;
        }
        $layers[$lastLayer] = $currArray;
    }
    return $layers;
}

Then to pass it to Javascript you can use JSON for php json_encode

Since @Mike is on his phone here is the code for you:

{"LAYER":[
    [0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
    [0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
    [0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
    [0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
    [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
],
"LAYER2":[
    [0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
    [0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
    [0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
    [0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
    [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
]
}