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Support

You can obtain free community support for example through stackoverflow, or also through the Symfony2 mailing list.

If you think you found a bug, please create a ticket in the bug tracker.


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Configuration

Handlers

You can register any service as a handler by adding either the jms_serializer.handler, or the jms_serializer.subscribing_handler.

<service id="my_handler" class="MyHandler">
    <tag name="jms_serializer.handler" type="DateTime" direction="serialization" format="json"
                method="serializeDateTimeToJson" />
</service>
Tip: The direction attribute is not required if you want to support both directions. Likewise can the method attribute be omitted, then a default using the scheme serializeTypeToFormat, or deserializeTypeFromFormat will be used for serialization or deserialization respectively.

Event Dispatcher

You can use the tags jms_serializer.event_listener, or jms_serializer.event_subscriber in order to register a listener.

The semantics are mainly the same as registering a regular Symfony2 event listener except that you can specify some additional attributes:

  • format: The format that you want to listen to; defaults to all formats.
  • class: The type name that you want to listen to; defaults to all types.
  • direction: The direction (serialization, or deserialization); defaults to both.
Note: Events are not dispatched by Symfony2?s event dispatcher as such you cannot register listeners with the kernel.event_listener tag, or the @DI\Observe annotation. Please see above.

Defining Metadata

To define the metadata using YAML or XML, you need to specify their location and to which PHP namespace prefix they refer.

jms_serializer:
    metadata:
        directories:
            App:
                namespace_prefix: "App\\Entity"
                path: "%kernel.root_dir%/serializer/app"
            FOSUB:
                namespace_prefix: "FOS\\UserBundle"
                path: "%kernel.root_dir%/serializer/FOSUB"
<jms-serializer>
    <metadata>
        <directory namespace_prefix="App\Entity"
                   path="%kernel.root_dir%/serializer/app" />
        <directory namespace_prefix="FOS\UserBundle"
                   path="%kernel.root_dir%/serializer/FOSUB" />
    </metadata>
</jms-serializer>
  • path must not contain trailing slashes
  • If you are using YAML files as metadata format, the file extension to use is .yml
Note:

Suppose you want to define the metadata using YAML for the classes in the App\\Entity namespace prefix and the configured path is %kernel.root_dir%/serializer/app, then your metadata file should be named: %kernel.root_dir%/serializer/app/Product.yml.

This feature is also useful for Overriding Third-Party Metadata. Sometimes you want to serialize objects which are shipped by a third-party bundle. Such a third-party bundle might not ship with metadata that suits your needs, or possibly none, at all. In such a case, you can override the default location that is searched for metadata with a path that is under your control.

Changing the Object Constructor

A Constructor class is used to construct new objects during deserialization. The default constructor uses the unserialize function to construct objects. Other constructors are configured as services. You can set the constructor by changing the service alias:

Extension Reference

Below you find a reference of all configuration options with their default values:

# config.yml
jms_serializer:
    handlers:
        datetime:
            default_format: "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP" # ATOM
            default_timezone: "UTC" # defaults to whatever timezone set in php.ini or via date_default_timezone_set
        array_collection:
            initialize_excluded: false

    subscribers:
        doctrine_proxy:
            initialize_virtual_types: false
            initialize_excluded: false

    object_constructors:
        doctrine:
            fallback_strategy: "null" # possible values ("null" | "exception" | "fallback")

    property_naming:
        id: ~
        separator:  _
        lower_case: true
        enable_cache: true

    metadata:
        cache: file
        debug: "%kernel.debug%"
        file_cache:
            dir: "%kernel.cache_dir%/serializer"

        # Using auto-detection, the mapping files for each bundle will be
        # expected in the Resources/config/serializer directory.
        #
        # Example:
        # class: My\FooBundle\Entity\User
        # expected path: @MyFooBundle/Resources/config/serializer/Entity.User.(yml|xml|php)
        auto_detection: true

        # if you don't want to use auto-detection, you can also define the
        # namespace prefix and the corresponding directory explicitly
        directories:
            any-name:
                namespace_prefix: "My\\FooBundle"
                path: "@MyFooBundle/Resources/config/serializer"
            another-name:
                namespace_prefix: "My\\BarBundle"
                path: "@MyBarBundle/Resources/config/serializer"
        warmup:
            # list of directories to scan searching for php classes to use when warming up the cache
            paths:
                included: []
                excluded: []

    expression_evaluator:
        id: jms_serializer.expression_evaluator # auto detected

    default_context:
        serialization:
            serialize_null: false
            version: ~
            attributes: {}
            groups: ['Default']
            enable_max_depth_checks: false
        deserialization:
            serialize_null: false
            version: ~
            attributes: {}
            groups: ['Default']
            enable_max_depth_checks: false

    visitors:
        json:
            options: 0 # json_encode options bitmask, suggested JSON_PRETTY_PRINT in development
        xml:
            doctype_whitelist:
                - '<!DOCTYPE authorized SYSTEM "http://some_url">' # an authorized document type for xml deserialization
            format_output: true # suggested false in production
<!-- config.xml -->
<jms-serializer>
    <handlers>
        <object-based />
        <datetime
            format="Y-mdTH:i:s"
            default-timezone="UTC" />
        <array-collection />
        <form-error />
        <constraint-violation />
    </handlers>

    <property-naming
        seperator="_"
        lower-case="true" />

    <metadata
        cache="file"
        debug="%kernel.debug%"
        auto-detection="true">

        <file-cache dir="%kernel.cache_dir%/serializer" />

        <!-- If auto-detection is enabled, mapping files for each bundle will
             be expected in the Resources/config/serializer directory.

             Example:
             class: My\FooBundle\Entity\User
             expected path: @MyFooBundle/Resources/config/serializer/Entity.User.(yml|xml|php)
        -->
        <directory
            namespace-prefix="My\FooBundle"
            path="@MyFooBundle/Resources/config/serializer" />
    </metadata>

    <visitors>
        <xml>
            <whitelisted-doctype><![CDATA[<!DOCTYPE...>]]></whitelisted-doctype>
            <whitelisted-doctype><![CDATA[<!DOCTYPE...>]]></whitelisted-doctype>
        </xml>
    </visitors>
</jms-serializer>