api_client.php

<?php

class ApiClient
	{
	/**
	 * @return Project[]
	 */
	public function getProjects(): array
		{
		$projects = [];
		$response = $this->client->get('https://some-awesome.api/projects');
		$projectCollection = $this->serializer->deserialize($response->getBody()->getContent(), ProjectCollection::class, 'json');
		if (!empty($collection->getResult()))
			{
			foreach ($collection->getResult() as $project)
				{
				if ($project->isOnSale())
					{
					$projects[] = $project;
					}
				}
			}
		
		return $projects;
		}
	
	public function addNewProject(Project $project)
		{
		$this->client->post('https://some-awesome.api/projects', [
			'body' => $this->serializer->serialize($project, 'json')
			]);
		}
	}

project.php

<?php

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\SerializedName;

class Project
  {
  /**
   * @SerializedName("Id")
   * @var int
   */
  private $internalId;
  
  /**
   * @SerializedName("Name")
   * @var string
   */
  private $title;
  
  /**
   * @SerializedName("Quality")
   * @var float
   */
  private $quality;
  
  // getters and setters
  }

project_collection.php

<?php

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\SerializedName;

class ProjectCollection
  {
  /**
   * @SerializedName("Result")
   * @var Project[]
   */
  private $result;
  
  /**
   * @return Project[]|null
   */
  public function getResult(): ?array
    {
    return $this->result;
    }
	
  /**
   * @param Project[] $results
   */
  public function setResult(array $result)
    {
    $this->result = $result;
    }
  }

I ca'nt seem to get it to work.

Whats does the getResult function looks like in the ProjectCollection class?

Just a simple getter:

/**
 * @return Project[]|null
 */
public function getResult(): ?array
	{
	return $this->result;
	}

What kind of problems are you running into?

The code works but... It returns an array of key-value pairs instead of Project (in my case Contact) objects. So somewhere I mist the part that you said:
"Have you noticed I didn’t have to tell the Serializer to map to the Project class?". I could not find out what is the key part in this.

Have you required symfony/property-info ?

After debugging a while, it seems that Serializer uses PropertyInfo component in order to "guess" from annotations which classes should be instantiated.
When I removed symfony/property-info as a test from my project, the response wasn't typecasted, just like you've said.
That component was an indirect dependency in my project, that's why I haven't noticed it was required.
I'll update the article after you confirm it was causing it.
Thanks for catching that! 👍 :)

You are welcome. Let me try if this solves my "problem" Op ma 27 jan. 2020 om 10:08 schreef Nebojša Kamber <notifications@github.com

…

: Have you required symfony/property-info ? After debugging a while, it seems that Serializer uses PropertyInfo <https://symfony.com/doc/current/components/property_info.html> component in order to "guess" from annotations <https://symfony.com/doc/current/components/property_info.html#phpdocextractor> which classes should be instantiated. When I removed symfony/property-info as a test from my project, the response wasn't typecasted, just like you've said. That component was an *indirect* dependency in my project, that's why I haven't noticed it was required. I'll update the article - thanks for catching that! 👍 :) — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://gist.github.com/81de7b5460d99049e73f12037222cae9?email_source=notifications&email_token=AB2RBPTVSZGBCJU4LPQC7GDQ72P5NA5CNFSM4KITQBQKYY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVNDWS43UINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTQAGAUPQ#gistcomment-3156216>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB2RBPWEOJUCNLYPJUG7BULQ72P5NANCNFSM4KITQBQA> .

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Hmm still not working :-(

Here's my gist with the test https://gist.github.com/parijke/05ac5d4332c1633ef23be25027a24965

I think you also made a typo using $projectCollection and $collection

I probably do not understand enough what is or should happening

Any tips what I am doing wrong?

I've been banging my head on it for an hour and finally found the culprit - another hidden dependency
composer require phpdocumentor/reflection-docblock

• Serializer uses Property Info
• Property Info uses extractors
• since the only piece of information that your $result is an array of Projects is the Project[]|null PHP DocBlock, the corresponding extractor is needed to parse that
• I've reproduced the bug with your gist (thank you) and it disappeared after requiring the package from above

I'll update my article with those hidden dependencies. Thanks again

PS I recommend that you inject the serializer in your controller/service (typecast it to SerializerInterface) instead of constructing it, like in your gist. That way, you'll be sure the extractor is registered in the Serializer

Yes, finally I got Project objects returned now it works like I expected. Gonna try to fix the mapping. I also changed the example to use the SerializerInterface type hint as you suggested. The default serializer-pack of the website-skeleton installs all (hidden) dependencies.

array:3 [▼
  0 => App\Model\Project {#699 ▼
    -title: "Project A"
    -sale: "1"
  }
  1 => App\Model\Project {#693 ▼
    -title: "Project B"
    -sale: "1"
  }
  2 => App\Model\Project {#692 ▼
    -title: "Project C"
    -sale: "0"
  }
]

Great! I'm glad it worked! I learned a lot through your use case, thanks!
I've updated the article to suggest symfony/serializer-pack and mentioned you in the DocBlock parsing ;)

Thx I learned a lot as well. And appreciate the mention. I am going to use this further in my project.