Symfony 2.7 dateTime deserialize - json

Question

I need some help with SF 2.7 serializer
I have made an API with get Json Data like this :
{
"dateDebut":"2017-02-16",
"dateFin":"2018-02-16",
"caMoisTotalHorsSessions":"5.2",
"caMoisClients":"5.3",
"caMoisGarantie":"5.4",
"caMoisHuile":"5.5" }
I tried many way in order to deserialze into my object Class where dateDebut and dateFin are attending to be Datetime object and not string
try {
$encoder = new JsonEncoder();
$normalizer = new GetSetMethodNormalizer();
$callback = function ($date) {
return new \DateTime($date);
};
$normalizer->setCallbacks(array(
'dateDebut' => $callback,
'dateFin' => $callback, ));
$serializer = new Serializer(array($normalizer), array($encoder));
$entity = $serializer->deserialize($request->getContent(), $class, $format);
} catch (RuntimeException $e) {
return new JsonResponse(
['code' => Response::HTTP_BAD_REQUEST, 'message' => $this->trans('api.message.data_error')],
Response::HTTP_BAD_REQUEST);
}
But callbacks are never used :/ Could anyone help me please ?
Aim is to transform date string into Datetime object automatically before flush the object in database.
Thanks a lot

Answer 1

What you are trying to do is denormalization. The normalizer callbacks are for normalization. I think it's pretty confusing. It's strange that they would offer setting callback for just one direction.
I tested some code doing what I think you want to do. You need a custom normalizer class. The class is not so complicated, it can extend from the GetSetNormalizer or the ObjectNormalizer. You just want to create the \DateTime inside here, and you might add some validation for the date time.
class BoardNormalizer extends GetSetMethodNormalizer
{
public function denormalize($data, $class, $format = null, array $context = array())
{
if (isset($data['created'])) {
$data['created'] = new \DateTime($data['created']);
}
return parent::denormalize($data, $class, $format, $context);
}
}
I tested it with this code:
$json = json_encode([
'created' => '2017-02-20T05:49:51-0500'
]);
$encoder = new JsonEncoder();
$normalizer = new MyCustomNormalizer();
$serializer = new Serializer([$normalizer], [$encoder]);
$entity = $serializer->deserialize($json, MyCustomClass::class, 'json');
And it produced my custom class where the created property was a \DateTime object.

Answer 2

Aim is to transform date string into Datetime object automatically before flush the object in database.
Something like this? Using setters/getters ? I'm using the following code in entity
private $created;
public function setCreated($created)
{
if (!($created instanceof \DateTime)) {
$created = date_create($created);
}
$this->created = $created;
return $this;
}