Is it advisable to have an object serialize itself in PHP, or are there better alternatives?

It is generally not advisable to have an object serialize itself in PHP as it can lead to unexpected results and potential security vulnerabilities. Instead, a better alternative is to create a separate method within the object specifically for serialization, where you can control which properties should be serialized and how they should be represented.

class MyClass {
    public $property1;
    public $property2;

    public function serializeObject() {
        return json_encode([
            'property1' => $this->property1,
            'property2' => $this->property2
        ]);
    }
}

$object = new MyClass();
$serializedObject = $object->serializeObject();