Serialization

API Platform serializes requests and responses with the Symfony Serializer component through its own serialization pipeline. The Spryker Serializer module complements this pipeline: it is registered as a Symfony service, and providers and processors use it to denormalize data into resource objects.

How it works

When a request hits an API Platform endpoint:

1. Request deserialization — API Platform deserializes the incoming payload into the resource object.
2. Provider/Processor — your provider or processor converts the resource object to arrays or transfer objects via toArray() and mappers, calls the business layer, and converts the result back into a resource object.
3. Response serialization — API Platform serializes the resource object into the expected response format.

The serialization context for steps 1 and 3 is built by API Platform’s SerializerContextBuilder from the resource and operation configuration. Providers and processors don’t interact with this context directly.

Using the Serializer service in providers and processors

Providers and processors inject SerializerServiceInterface and use its denormalize() method to convert mapped transfer data into the generated resource class:

return $this->serializer->denormalize(
    $this->customersResourceMapper->mapCustomerTransferToResourceData($customerTransfer),
    CustomersStorefrontResource::class,
);

For the full Serializer service API, see the Serializer guidelines.

Custom normalizers

To add a custom normalizer that applies to API Platform resources, register it as a Symfony service tagged with serializer.normalizer. Use the priority attribute to control execution order. For example, the ApiPlatform module registers its JSON:API response normalizers this way:

$services->set(SelfLinkNormalizer::class)
    ->tag('serializer.normalizer', ['priority' => 63]);

Normalizer plugins registered in the Serializer module’s SerializerDependencyProvider affect only the Serializer service itself; they have no effect on API Platform’s request and response serialization.

For details on the Symfony Serializer component, see the Symfony documentation.