Get Javascript object stored in file, into php variable

Question

I have a Switches.js javascript file, like this:

//GLOBAL switches
//Change the values accordingly

var SWITCHES = {
    uber:        true, //Uber
    social:      true, //Social media pulgins
    g_charts:    true, //Google Charts
    g_captcha:   true, //Google Captcha
    g_analytics: true, //Google Analytics
    data_base:   true, //Inserts user input data into DataBase
    print:       true, //Print option
    pdf:         true, //Download PDF report option
    https:       true  //true for https, false for http
};

This JS file is stored in my server.

Is there a way to get that object and one of those properties into a php variable? I think that should be around the php functions file_get_contents and json_decode , but how do I take into account the comments in the JS file and that variable SWITCHES in particular?

$file_content = file_get_contents("Switches.js");
//some stuff
$http_switch = $SWITCHES[https];

AJAX nor jQuery are an option because this is to be run purely server side.

Answer 1

Since the Switches.js is JavaScript and not JSON, you can't use json_decode() . Instead you should convert it to JSON and decode/parse it both client-side and server-side:

In PHP, you'd do:

$data = file_get_contents("Switches.json");
$switches = json_decode($data);

And then client-side you fetch it via AJAX and parse:

$.get("/Switches.json", function (data) {
  var switches = JSON.parse(data)
})

Your Switches.json file would then be (JSON files must not have comments):

{
    "uber": true,
    "social": true,
    "g_charts": true,
    "g_captcha": true,
    "g_analytics": true,
    "data_base": true,
    "print": true,
    "pdf": true,
    "https": true
}