How to Use the Serializer

Symfony provides a serializer to serialize/deserialize to and from objects and different formats (e.g. JSON or XML). Before using it, read the Serializer component docs to get familiar with its philosophy and the normalizers and encoders terminology.

Installation

In applications using Symfony Flex, run this command to install the serializer Symfony pack before using it:

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        $ composer require symfony/serializer-pack
    

Using the Serializer Service

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

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        // 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
    }
}
    

Or you can use the serialize Twig filter in a template:

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        {{ object|serialize(format = 'json') }}
    

See the twig reference for more information.

5.3

A serialize filter was introduced in Symfony 5.3 that uses the Serializer component.

Adding Normalizers and Encoders

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

Encoders supporting the following formats are enabled:

JSON: JsonEncoder
XML: XmlEncoder
CSV: CsvEncoder
YAML: YamlEncoder

As well as the following normalizers:

5.4

BackedEnumNormalizer was introduced in Symfony 5.4. PHP BackedEnum requires at least PHP 8.1.

Other built-in normalizers and custom normalizers and/or encoders can also be loaded by tagging them as serializer.normalizer and serializer.encoder. It's also possible to set the priority of the tag in order to decide the matching order.

Danger

Always make sure to load the DateTimeNormalizer when serializing the DateTime or DateTimeImmutable classes to avoid excessive memory usage and exposing internal details.

Serializer Context

The serializer can define a context to control the (de)serialization of resources. This context is passed to all normalizers. For example:

DateTimeNormalizer uses datetime_format key as date time format;
AbstractObjectNormalizer uses preserve_empty_objects to represent empty objects as {} instead of [] in JSON.
Serializer uses empty_array_as_object to represent empty arrays as {} instead of [] in JSON.

5.4

The usage of the empty_array_as_object option in the Serializer was introduced in Symfony 5.4.

You can pass the context as follows:

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        $serializer->serialize($something, 'json', [
    DateTimeNormalizer::FORMAT_KEY => 'Y-m-d H:i:s',
]);

$serializer->deserialize($someJson, Something::class, 'json', [
    DateTimeNormalizer::FORMAT_KEY => 'Y-m-d H:i:s',
]);
    

You can also configure the default context through the framework configuration:

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        # config/packages/framework.yaml
framework:
    # ...
    serializer:
        default_context:
            enable_max_depth: true
    

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        <!-- config/packages/framework.xml -->
<framework:config>
    <!-- ... -->
    <framework:serializer>
        <default-context enable-max-depth="true"/>
    </framework:serializer>
</framework:config>
    

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        // config/packages/framework.php
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\AbstractObjectNormalizer;
use Symfony\Config\FrameworkConfig;

return static function (FrameworkConfig $framework) {
    $framework->serializer()
        ->defaultContext([
            AbstractObjectNormalizer::ENABLE_MAX_DEPTH => true
        ])
    ;
};
    

5.4

The ability to configure the default_context option in the Serializer was introduced in Symfony 5.4.

You can also specify the context on a per-property basis:

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        namespace App\Model;

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\Context;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\DateTimeNormalizer;

class Person
{
    /**
     * @Context({ DateTimeNormalizer::FORMAT_KEY = 'Y-m-d' })
     */
    public $createdAt;

    // ...
}
    

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        namespace App\Model;

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\Context;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\DateTimeNormalizer;

class Person
{
    #[Context([DateTimeNormalizer::FORMAT_KEY => 'Y-m-d'])]
    public $createdAt;

    // ...
}
    

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        # config/serializer/custom_config.yaml
App\Model\Person:
    attributes:
        createdAt:
            contexts:
                - { context: { datetime_format: 'Y-m-d' } }
    

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        <!-- config/serializer/custom_config.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<serializer xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/serializer-mapping"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/serializer-mapping
        https://symfony.com/schema/dic/serializer-mapping/serializer-mapping-1.0.xsd"
>
    <class name="App\Model\Person">
        <attribute name="createdAt">
            <context>
                <entry name="datetime_format">Y-m-d</entry>
            </context>
        </attribute>
    </class>
</serializer>
    

Use the options to specify context specific to normalization or denormalization:

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        namespace App\Model;

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\Context;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\DateTimeNormalizer;

class Person
{
    #[Context(
        normalizationContext: [DateTimeNormalizer::FORMAT_KEY => 'Y-m-d'],
        denormalizationContext: [DateTimeNormalizer::FORMAT_KEY => '!Y-m-d'], // To prevent to have the time from the moment of denormalization
    )]
    public $createdAt;

    // ...
}
    

You can also restrict the usage of a context to some groups:

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        namespace App\Model;

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\Context;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\Groups;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\DateTimeNormalizer;

class Person
{
    #[Groups(['extended'])]
    #[Context([DateTimeNormalizer::FORMAT_KEY => \DateTime::RFC3339])]
    #[Context(
        context: [DateTimeNormalizer::FORMAT_KEY => \DateTime::RFC3339_EXTENDED],
        groups: ['extended'],
    )]
    public $createdAt;

    // ...
}
    

The attribute/annotation can be repeated as much as needed on a single property. Context without group is always applied first. Then context for the matching groups are merged in the provided order.

5.3

The Context attribute, annotation and the configuration options were introduced in Symfony 5.3.

Using Serialization Groups Annotations

You can add the @Groups annotations to your class:

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        // src/Entity/Product.php
namespace App\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\Groups;

/**
 * @ORM\Entity()
 */
class Product
{
    /**
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @Groups({"show_product", "list_product"})
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
     * @Groups({"show_product", "list_product"})
     */
    private $name;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="text")
     * @Groups({"show_product"})
     */
    private $description;
}
    

You can now choose which groups to use when serializing:

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        $json = $serializer->serialize(
    $product,
    'json',
    ['groups' => 'show_product']
);
    

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 also supports YAML or XML files. These files are automatically loaded when being stored in one of the following locations:

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

Configuring the Metadata Cache

The metadata for the serializer is automatically cached to enhance application performance. By default, the serializer uses the cache.system cache pool which is configured using the cache.system option.

Enabling a Name Converter

The use of a name converter service can be defined in the configuration using the name_converter option.

The built-in CamelCase to snake_case name converter can be enabled by using the serializer.name_converter.camel_case_to_snake_case value:

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

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

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        // config/packages/framework.php
use Symfony\Config\FrameworkConfig;

return static function (FrameworkConfig $framework) {
    $framework->serializer()->nameConverter('serializer.name_converter.camel_case_to_snake_case');
};
    

Going Further with the Serializer

API Platform provides an API system supporting the following formats:

JSON-LD along with the Hydra Core Vocabulary
OpenAPI v2 (formerly Swagger) and v3
GraphQL
JSON:API
HAL
JSON
XML
YAML
CSV

It is built on top of the Symfony Framework and its Serializer component. It provides custom normalizers and a custom encoder, custom metadata and a caching system.

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

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.

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