Loïc Frémont
Contributed by Loïc Frémont in #48568

The Serializer component handles the (de)serialization of data structures, including object graphs, into array structures or other formats like XML and JSON. It's a powerful component but most of its complexity is hidden, which makes it hard to debug complex situations.

In Symfony 6.2 we added a new Serializer panel to the Symfony profiler to aid in debugging issues. In Symfony 6.3 we're adding a another tool to assist you: the new debug:serializer command.

This command dumps the serializer metadata of a given class, which helps you find any issues in your metadata configuration:

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$ php bin/console debug:serializer 'App\Entity\Book'

  App\Entity\Book
  ---------------

  +----------+------------------------------------------------------------+
  | Property | Options                                                    |
  +----------+------------------------------------------------------------+
  | name     | [                                                          |
  |          |   "groups" => [                                            |
  |          |       "book:read",                                         |
  |          |       "book:write",                                        |
  |          |   ]                                                        |
  |          |   "maxDepth" => 1,                                         |
  |          |   "serializedName" => "book_name"                          |
  |          |   "ignore" => false                                        |
  |          |   "normalizationContexts" => [],                           |
  |          |   "denormalizationContexts" => []                          |
  |          | ]                                                          |
  | isbn     | [                                                          |
  |          |   "groups" => [                                            |
  |          |       "book:read",                                         |
  |          |   ]                                                        |
  |          |   "maxDepth" => null,                                      |
  |          |   "serializedName" => null                                 |
  |          |   "ignore" => false                                        |
  |          |   "normalizationContexts" => [],                           |
  |          |   "denormalizationContexts" => []                          |
  |          | ]                                                          |
  +----------+------------------------------------------------------------+

This command joins the other built-in debug commands provided by Symfony, totaling 12 commands:

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debug:config           "Dump the current configuration for an extension"
debug:container        "Display current services for an application"
debug:autowiring       "List classes/interfaces you can use for autowiring"
debug:dotenv           "Lists all dotenv files with variables and values"
debug:event-dispatcher "Display configured listeners for an application"
debug:router           "Display current routes for an application"
debug:serializer       "Display serialization information for classes"
debug:translation      "Display translation messages information"
debug:validator        "Display validation constraints for classes"
debug:form             "Display form type information"
debug:firewall         "Display information about your security firewall(s)"
debug:twig             "Show a list of twig functions, filters, globals and tests"

Do you miss any debug commands? Would you add new options and features to existing commands? Tell us in the comments.

Published in #Living on the edge