Array Type

ArrayType passes arrays and strings through marshalling and database reads. On database writes, it accepts strings and null; an array becomes null. It does not JSON encode or decode values.

Register it in your application bootstrap:

use Cake\Database\TypeFactory;
use Shim\Database\Type\ArrayType;

TypeFactory::map('array', ArrayType::class);

In your table's initialize(), set the column type with $this->getSchema()->setColumnType('column_name', 'array'). A behavior must encode the array before saving. For automatic JSON conversion in new code, use CakePHP's core json type.

See the Tools plugin's Jsonable behavior when maintaining an application that already uses behavior-based encoding.