How to Use the Serializer

In applications using Symfony Flex, run this command toinstall the before using it:

Using the Serializer Service

Once enabled, the serializer service can be injected in any service whereyou need it or it can be used in a controller:

// src/Controller/DefaultController.php
namespace App\Controller;
 
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\SerializerInterface;
 
class DefaultController extends AbstractController
{
    public function index(SerializerInterface $serializer)
    {
        // keep reading for usage examples
    }
}

Once enabled, the serializer service will be available in the container.It comes with a set of useful and normalizers.

Encoders supporting the following formats are enabled:

JSON:
XML: XmlEncoder
CSV:
DateTimeNormalizer forobjects implementing the interface
DateTimeZoneNormalizer for objects
DataUriNormalizer totransform objects in
JsonSerializableNormalizerto deal with objects implementing the interface
ArrayDenormalizer todenormalize arrays of objects using a format like MyObject[] (note the [] suffix)

New in version 4.3: The DateTimeZoneNormalizer was introduced in Symfony 4.3.

Custom normalizers and/or encoders can also be loaded by tagging them as andserializer.encoder. It's alsopossible to set the priority of the tag in order to decide the matching order.

Here is an example on how to load the, afaster alternative to the ObjectNormalizer when data objects always usegetters (getXxx()), issers (isXxx()) or hassers (hasXxx()) to readproperties and setters (setXxx()) to change properties:

YAML

# config/services.yaml
services:
    get_set_method_normalizer:
        class: Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\GetSetMethodNormalizer
        public: false
        tags: [serializer.normalizer]

XML

PHP

// config/services.php
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\GetSetMethodNormalizer;
 
$container->register('get_set_method_normalizer', GetSetMethodNormalizer::class)
    ->setPublic(false)
    ->addTag('serializer.normalizer')
;

Using Serialization Groups Annotations

To use annotations, first add support for them via the SensioFrameworkExtraBundle:

$ composer require sensio/framework-extra-bundle

Tip

The value of the groups key can be a single string, or an array of strings.

In addition to the @Groups annotation, the Serializer component alsosupports YAML or XML files. These files are automatically loaded when beingstored in one of the following locations:

All and .xml files in the config/serializer/directory.
The serialization.yaml or serialization.xml file inthe Resources/config/ directory of a bundle;

The metadata for the serializer is automatically cached to enhance applicationperformance. By default, the serializer uses the cache.system cache poolwhich is configured using the option.

Enabling a Name Converter

The use of a service can be defined in the configuration using the name_converteroption.

The built-in can be enabled by using the value:

YAML

# config/packages/framework.yaml
framework:
    # ...
    serializer:
        name_converter: 'serializer.name_converter.camel_case_to_snake_case'

XML

<!-- config/packages/framework.xml -->
<framework:config>
    <!-- ... -->
    <framework:serializer name-converter="serializer.name_converter.camel_case_to_snake_case"/>
</framework:config>

PHP

JSON-LD along with the
OpenAPI v2 (formerly Swagger) and v3
JSON:API
JSON
XML
YAML
CSVIt is built on top of the Symfony Framework and its Serializercomponent. It provides custom normalizers and a custom encoder, custom metadataand a caching system.

If you want to leverage the full power of the Symfony Serializer component,take a look at how this bundle works.

Normalizers