An unknown data representation notation in drupal

s:17:"thumbnail";
s:1:"1";
a:0:{}
a:9:{s:5:"title";s:2:"-5";s:10:"body_field";s:1:"0";s:20:"revision_information";s:1:"3";s:6:"author";s:1:"2";s:7:"options";s:1:"4";s:4:"menu";s:2:"-1";s:4:"path";s:1:"5";s:12:"image_attach";s:2:"-4";s:13:"path_redirect";s:1:"6";}

What is the name of this notation? Who is responsible for its standardiza开发者_C百科tion?

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It is the PHP function serialize called internally by drupal_write_record that is responsible for this notation.

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Per line:

• the first part ("s" or "a" in your example) is the type ("s" is string, "a" is array)

• the second part is the length (however "thumbnail" is only 9 chars, I wonder why it says s:17, there are probably extra empty chars)

• the third part is the value as string (or as object if it's an array or an object)

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More specifically, the serialize function is actually called internally by Drupal using the schema API automatically. A field can be set as "serialized" and Drupal will internally handle the conversions of arrays and objects.