Return a json-encoded, non-recursive object in FOSRestBundle

Question

I am building a REST API with FOSRestBundle. My entities have quite a bit of OneToMany/ManyToOne bidirectional relationships. Whenever I want to GET some entity with the JSON format, e.g. web/app_dev.php/users/1.json I'm getting a much bigger object than I actually need: all related objects are recursively included. My controllers return the object and have the @View annotations.

How can I return an object that just reflects the database row (i.e. with only the ids of me related objects)?

Answer 1

You can play with annotation (http://jmsyst.com/libs/serializer/master/reference/annotations : see Groups, Expose/Exclude, or MaxDepth)

I prefer to use the Groups annotation (i have exactly what i want !)

For example :

In the Entity class :

/**
 * @var integer
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
 * @ORM\Id
 * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
 * @JMS\Groups({"main"})
 */
private $id;

/**
 * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="DocumentUnique", inversedBy="Evaluations")
 * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="documentUniqueId", referencedColumnName="id")
 * @JMS\Groups({"show", "all"}) 
 */
protected $DocumentUnique;    

/**
 * @var string
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="title", type="string", length=20)
 * @JMS\Groups({"main","all"}) 
 */
 private $title;

In the Controller :

/**
 * @Rest\View(serializerGroups={"main"})
 */    
public function cgetAction()
{
    return $this->getRepository('MyEntity')->findAll();
}

In you want to expose the id of one relation, you can use the VirtualProperty annotation :

/**
 * @JMS\VirtualProperty
 * @JMS\SerializedName("documentUniqueId")
 * @JMS\Groups("main") 
 */    
public function getDocumentUniqueId() {
    if (!$this->DocumentUnique) return null;
    return $this->DocumentUnique->getId();
}