How to Create your Custom Name Converter

The Serializer Component uses name converters to transform the attribute names (e.g. from snake_case in JSON to CamelCase for PHP properties).

Imagine you have the following object:

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        namespace App\Model;

class Company
{
    public string $name;
    public string $address;
}
    

And in the serialized form, all attributes must be prefixed by org_ like the following:

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        {"org_name": "Acme Inc.", "org_address": "123 Main Street, Big City"}
    

A custom name converter can handle such cases:

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        namespace App\Serializer;

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\NameConverter\NameConverterInterface;

class OrgPrefixNameConverter implements NameConverterInterface
{
    public function normalize(string $propertyName): string
    {
        // during normalization, add the prefix
        return 'org_'.$propertyName;
    }

    public function denormalize(string $propertyName): string
    {
        // remove the 'org_' prefix on denormalizing
        return str_starts_with($propertyName, 'org_') ? substr($propertyName, 4) : $propertyName;
    }
}
    

Note

You can also implement AdvancedNameConverterInterface to access the current class name, format and context.

Then, configure the serializer to use your name converter:

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        # config/packages/serializer.yaml
framework:
    serializer:
        # pass the service ID of your name converter
        name_converter: 'App\Serializer\OrgPrefixNameConverter'
    

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        <!-- config/packages/serializer.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:framework="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/symfony"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
        https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd
        http://symfony.com/schema/dic/symfony https://symfony.com/schema/dic/symfony/symfony-1.0.xsd">

    <framework:config>
        <!-- pass the service ID of your name converter -->
        <framework:serializer
            name-converter="App\Serializer\OrgPrefixNameConverter"
        />
    </framework:config>
</container>
    

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        // config/packages/serializer.php
use App\Serializer\OrgPrefixNameConverter;
use Symfony\Config\FrameworkConfig;

return static function (FrameworkConfig $framework) {
    $framework->serializer()
        // pass the service ID of your name converter
        ->nameConverter(OrgPrefixNameConverter::class)
    ;
};
    

Now, when using the serializer in the application, all attributes will be prefixed by org_:

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        // ...
$company = new Company('Acme Inc.', '123 Main Street, Big City');

$json = $serializer->serialize($company, 'json');
// {"org_name": "Acme Inc.", "org_address": "123 Main Street, Big City"}
$companyCopy = $serializer->deserialize($json, Company::class, 'json');
// Same data as $company
    

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

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