Symfony Serializer Attributes

Symfony Serializer is a powerful component that can serialize and deserialize objects to and from various formats. It can use several attributes to customize the serialization process.

When this component is available, AutoMapper can use these attributes to customize the mapping process.

#[Groups]

The Symfony Serializer #[Groups] attribute can be used to define groups of properties that should be mapped.

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Attribute\Groups;

class Source
{
    #[Groups(['group1', 'group2'])]
    public $groupedProperty;
}

! [!WARNING] When both target and source objects have groups, the property will be mapped only if the context contains at least one group from the target object and one group from the source object.

More information on the Groups attribute

#[Ignore]

The Symfony Serializer #[Ignore] attribute can be used to ignore a property during the mapping process.

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Attribute\Ignore;

class Source
{
    #[Ignore]
    public $ignoredProperty;
}

More information on the Ignore attribute

#[MaxDepth]

The Symfony Serializer #[MaxDepth] attribute can be used to limit the depth of the serialization process.

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Attribute\MaxDepth;

class Source
{
    #[MaxDepth(1)]
    public  $nestedProperty;
}

More information on the MaxDepth attribute

Name converters

AutoMapper can use the Symfony Serializer name converters to convert the property names, when mapping to or from an array.

use Symfony\Component\Serializer\NameConverter\CamelCaseToSnakeCaseNameConverter;

$autoMapper = AutoMapper::create(nameConverter: new CamelCaseToSnakeCaseNameConverter());

More information on the Name converters

Normalizer Bridge

Additionally, this library provide a normalizer which implements the Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\NormalizerInterface interface.

It's goal is to be as close as possible to the ObjectNormalizer of the symfony/serializer component, but with a focus on performance.

use AutoMapper\Normalizer\AutoMapperNormalizer;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Serializer;

$autoMapper = AutoMapper::create();
$serializer = new Serializer([new AutoMapperNormalizer($autoMapper)]);