Modifying object output of a restful response using FOSRestBundle

Question

I'm having trouble achieving something that should be simple using FOSRestBundle.

If I return an object, it works as intended. The JSON response will look something like

{ 
  id: ..., 
  property: ... 
}

What I'd like to do is return, on all requests and status codes, a envelope for the response, something like

{
  meta: {
    code: 200,
    message: 'OK',
  }
  data: {
    id: ...,
    property: ...
  }
}

This way, clients can write simple code to detect errors, where responses would look something like:

{
  meta: {
    code: 400,
    message: 'Your request failed because...',
  }
  data: {}
}

I want to return this from multiple controllers, and return it only on JSON or XML requests. My first thought was to use a ResponseListener, check the format of the request, and modify the response if need be. Or, maybe, just set up a class something like \Model\APIRequestFormatter, and from my controller, instead of doing a return $entity; do return APIRequestFormatter->Format($entity);

Both of these approaches seem flawed to me, does anyone have any tips?

Ian Letourneau · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-21T06:01:27.763

You should have a look at this really complete blog post : http://williamdurand.fr/2012/08/02/rest-apis-with-symfony2-the-right-way/

William Durand talks about how to create a good REST Api and about JSON response with the correct status code.

If you are following what William wrote in his article, you will have a JSON response based on this format :

{
    code: 400,
    message: "Your message",
    first_data: "...",
    second_data: "...",
    ...
}

Which is not exactly what you are looking for. But I think the code your clients will have to write will be as simple as what you want with the format you proposed :

{
  meta: {
    code: 400,
    message: 'Your request failed because...',
  }
  data: {}
}

Maybe you can show what you did in your controller so my answer could be more precise.

Update:

With the following controller, you should be able to return the JSON Response you want :

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\JsonResponse;

class MyController{
    //...
    public function myAction(){
        $myStatusCode = 400;

        return new JSonResponse(
            array('meta' => array('code' => $myStatusCode,
                                  'message' => 'Your request failed because...'),
                  'data' => array('your datas')
            ),
            $myStatusCode
        );
    }
    //...
}

This will create a response with the correct status code in the header and it allows you to add the message and status code you want in your JSon response.

Thank you very much for the response. I did follow that tutorial fairly closely. The issue is that the responses you've shown here are indeed what error responses look like, but not what successful entity responses look like. I was hoping to be able to add a consistent envelope to all responses, error and success alike, but it doesn't appear to me that there's a good way to do this. — Pez, Mar 20 '14 at 23:21
@Pez Have you tried to use curl to send a request to your controller? When you send a request, you receive a status code in the response's header. For instance, I am sending this simple request `curl -v -H "Accept: application/json" -H "Content-type: application/json" localhost/my_api.json `. If it's successful, the header of the response I will receive will be : `HTTP/1.1 200 OK`. So, based on this data, I will be able to know if it was successful or not. I know it's not exactly what you are trying to acheive so if it isn't good for you let me know. I will be happy to look for other solutions — Ian Letourneau, Mar 21 '14 at 05:39
I think I found another question that could help you : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12385923/handle-errors-in-ajax-within-symfony2-controller I know it's about errors message but the answer provided by Florian Eckerstorfer allow you to add anything you want. I updated my answer. — Ian Letourneau, Mar 21 '14 at 05:51

Modifying object output of a restful response using FOSRestBundle

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