Laravel: Update a nested json object - json

Question

I have a column in my db for saving a users' settings. This is what the data structure looks like:
{"email":{"subscriptions":"{\"Foo\":true,\"Bar\":false}"}}
I am using a vue toggle to change the status of each property (true/false). Everything seems to be working, however when I save, I am wiping out the structure and saving the updated values like this:
{\"Foo\":true,\"Bar\":false}"}
php
$user = auth()->user();
$array = json_decode($user->preferences['email']['subscriptions'], true);
dd($array);
The above gets me:
array:2 [
"Foo" => true
"Bar" => false
]
So far so good...
$preferences = array_merge($array, $request->all());
dd($preferences);
Gets me:
array:2 [
"Foo" => true
"Bar" => true
]
Great - the values are now picking up the values passed in from the axios request. Next up; update the user's data:
$user->update(compact('preferences'));
Now my data looks like this:
{"Foo":true,"Bar":true}
The values are no-longer nested; I've wiped out email and subscriptions.
I've tried this:
$user->update([$user->preferences['email']['subscriptions'] => json_encode($preferences)]);
But it doesn't seem to save the data. How can I use the $preferences variable to update the data - and keep the data nested correctly?

Answer 1

You can create an array with the structure you want the resulting json to have. So, for this json:
{
"email":{
"subscriptions":{
"Foo":true,
"Bar":false
}
}
}
you can create an array like this:
[
'email' => [
'subscriptions' => [
'Foo' => true,
'Bar' => false
]
]
]
an then, encode the entire structure:
json_encode([
'email' => [
'subscriptions' => [
'Foo' => true,
'Bar' => false
]
]
]);
So, in your code, as you already have the nested array in the $preferences variable, I think this should work:
$json_preferences = json_encode([
'email' => [
'subscriptions' => $preferences
]
]);
Then you can update the user 'preferences' attribute (just for example):
User::where('id', auth()->user()->id)->update(['preferences' => $json_preferences]);
or
$user = auth()->user();
$user->preferences = $json_preferences;
$user->save();