passing 2-dimensional array in HTTP Request - web-services

Question

I'm trying to design a simple API for a webservice I've written. The problem I'm facing is as follows: a form will present to a user any number of themes. This number will change per database.
The user may pick any number of the themes presented and later on can also assign a number value to them to describe level of relevance.
What I need to do is to be able to pass to the webserivce a 2 dimensional array [themeid: theme value] for each selected theme.
I'm not sure how to do that using HTTP get or POST.
Will appreciate any help!

Answer 1

Why do you need a 2d array? Why not pass a list of pairings back where you use an object to encapsulate a theme id and relevance rating pairing? Here is an example in json:
[
{
"rating": 5,
"themeId": 1
},
{
"rating": 3,
"themeId": 2
}
]

Answer 2

whaley has it right pretty much. You want to use json.
Here is an interactive php session to show you how to do this php->json
php > $root = array();
php > $node = new stdClass();
php > $node->theme = "theme";
php > $node->value = "value";
php > $root[12] = $node;
Here's a print_r of this object, to show you what it looks like in php.
php > print_r($root);
Array
(
[12] => stdClass Object
(
[theme] => theme
[value] => value
)
)
Here's an example of the json output.
php > echo json_encode($root);
{"12":{"theme":"theme","value":"value"}}
In essense, you could push this either POST or GET into your application, and json_decode() it to the object in the first section.