How to make the error = false appear in Fractal json response - json

Question

I'm using Fractal transformer to prettify my User model json return (using Laravel 5.3 + dingo api).
Previously I was returning my user model like this:
return response()->success(compact('user'));
and the json was returned like this
{
"errors": false,
"data": {
"user": {
"id": 2,
"first_name": "
Now I use a transformer, and return it like this:
return $this->response->item($user, new UserTransformer);
and the json looks like this:
{
"data": {
"id": 2,
"first_name": "Client",
"last_name": "Testing",
How do I wire things up with fractal to return the same structure as it was previously? All my unit tests expect the original format, and so they're failing like this:
1) LoginEmailTest::testLoginEmailSuccess
Unable to find JSON fragment
["errors":false]
within
[{"data":[{"user":{"a
Update
I think the obvious place to customize the response is in the Fractal default dataArraySerializer. But I'm not sure how to deal with the error parameter, in other words, how do I pass it an actual error if it exists rather than just hardcoded it to null?

Answer 1

so this is how i fixed it (but for some reason I'm not happy with this whole situation, being a laravel nuub yet having familiarity with rails/django etc.. something doesn't feel right about all of this:)
<?php
/*
* This is to address the problem asked here:
* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48669423/how-to-make-the-error-false-appear-in-fractal-json-response
* basically we must add an error key to the top level of the json response
*
*
*/
namespace App\Http\Serializer;
use League\Fractal\Serializer\ArraySerializer;
class DataErrorArraySerializer extends ArraySerializer
{
/**
* Serialize a collection.
*
* #param string $resourceKey
* #param array $data
*
* #return array
*/
public function collection($resourceKey, array $data)
{
return ['data' => $data, 'errors' => false];
}
/**
* Serialize an item.
*
* #param string $resourceKey
* #param array $data
*
* #return array
*/
public function item($resourceKey, array $data)
{
return ['data' => $data, 'errors' => false];
}
/**
* Serialize null resource.
*
* #return array
*/
public function null()
{
return ['data' => [], 'errors' => false];
}
}
and in the controller:
$manager = new Manager();
$manager->setSerializer(new DataErrorArraySerializer());
$resource = new Item($user, new UserTransformer);
return $manager->createData($resource)->toArray();
so this is what it looks like in a successful http request:
{
"data": {
"id": 2,
"first_name": "Client",
"last_name": "Testing",
..
},
"errors": false
}
when an http error happens, it doesn't even execute that code anyways, it will return an error response (for example see this part of the code:
} catch (\JWTException $e) {
\Log::debug('Could not create token for login email: '. $email);
return response()->error(trans('errors.no_token'), 500);
}
and response is defined in public/index.php like so:
$kernel = $app->make(Illuminate\Contracts\Http\Kernel::class);
$response = $kernel->handle(
$request = Illuminate\Http\Request::capture()
);
$response->send();
anyways again this is what an error looks like:
{
"message": "422 Unprocessable Entity",
"errors": {
"message": [
"The email must be a valid email address."
]
},
"status_code": 422
}