Symfony2 FOSRESTBundle REST API to return PDF

Question

I've made a Bundle and a REST controller inside. The "index" method return array in JSON-format, it's ok:

MyBundle/Controller/Api/Rest/BaconController.php

class BaconController extends Controller implements ClassResourceInterface
{
    /**
     * @var Request $request
     * @return array
     * @Rest\View
     */
    public function cgetAction(Request $request)
    {
        $mediaType = $request->attributes->get('media_type');
        $format = $request->getFormat($mediaType);
        my_dump($format);

        return array(
             array("id" => 1, "title" => "hello",),
             array("id" => 2, "title" => "there",),
        );
    }
}

MyBundle/Resources/config/api/routing_rest.yml

my_api_rest_bacon:
    type: rest
    resource: "MyBundle:Api/Rest/Bacon"
    name_prefix: api_rest_bacon_
    prefix: /my/bacon

So, at this point JSON results get returned perfectly:

mysite.com/app_dev.php/api/my/bacon/bacons.json

returns my array.

But now I need to get my controller generate a PDF with the data. So I want it to return PDF document when I call:

mysite.com/app_dev.php/api/my/bacon/bacons.pdf

I've found some half-manuals: RSS view handler, RSS config.ynal, CSV issue with answers. And tried to make something similar:

I've added these lines to

Symfony/app/config/config.yml

framework:
    [...some old stuff here...]
    request:
        formats:
            pdf: 'application/pdf'

fos_rest:
    body_converter:
        enabled:              true
    format_listener:
        rules:
            # Prototype array
            -
                # URL path info
                path:                 ~
                # URL host name
                host:                 ~
                prefer_extension:     true
                fallback_format:      html
                priorities:           [html,json]
            -
                path:                 ~
                host:                 ~
                prefer_extension:     true
                fallback_format:      pdf
                priorities:           [pdf]
    view:
        # @View or @Template
        view_response_listener: force #true
        formats:
            json: true
            pdf: true
            xls: true
            html: false
        templating_formats:
            pdf: false
            xls: false
        mime_types: {'pdf': ['application/pdf']}
    routing_loader:
        default_format: html
    param_fetcher_listener: true
    body_listener: true
    allowed_methods_listener: true

services:
    my.view_handler.pdf:
        class: Lobster\MyBundle\View\PdfViewHandler
    my.view_handler:
        parent: fos_rest.view_handler.default
        calls:
            - ['registerHandler', [ 'pdf', [@my.view_handler.pdf, 'createResponse'] ] ]

MyBundle/View/PdfViewHandler.php

namespace Lobster\MyBundle\View;

use FOS\RestBundle\View\View;
use FOS\RestBundle\View\ViewHandler;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

class PdfViewHandler
{
    public function createResponse(ViewHandler $handler, View $view, Request $request, $format)
    {
        my_dump('pdf createResponse started');

        $pdf = "some pdf";

        return new Response($pdf, 200, $view->getHeaders());
    }
}

So now when I call

mysite.com/app_dev.php/api/my/bacon/bacons.pdf

I see an error An Exception was thrown while handling: Format html not supported, handler must be implemented and my function my_dump saves to a text file info about file format: it is html, not pdf.

Also pdf createResponse didn't work. Why?

Answer 1

So I've found the solution (I will describe how to enable 2 output formats: PDF and XLS):

1) This section in config.yml is not needed:

framework:
    [...some old stuff here...]
    request:
        formats:
            pdf: 'application/pdf'

2) fos_rest.format_listener section in config.yml should look like this:

format_listener:
    rules:
        -
            path:                 '^/api/my/bacon.*\.xls$'
            host:                 ~
            prefer_extension:     false
            fallback_format:      json
            priorities:           [xls, json]
        -
            path:                 '^/api/my/bacon.*\.pdf$'
            host:                 ~
            prefer_extension:     false
            fallback_format:      json
            priorities:           [pdf, json]
        -
            path:                 ~
            host:                 ~
            prefer_extension:     true
            fallback_format:      html
            priorities:           [html,json]

3) need to add service section into fos_rest in config.yml

fos_rest:
[...]
    service:
        view_handler: my.view_handler

4) services root section in config.yml should look like

services:
    my.view_handler.xls:
        class: Lobster\MyBundle\View\XlsViewHandler
    my.view_handler.pdf:
        class: Lobster\MyBundle\View\PdfViewHandler
    my.view_handler:
        parent: fos_rest.view_handler.default
        calls:
            - ['registerHandler', ['xls', [@my.view_handler.xls, 'createResponse'] ] ]
            - ['registerHandler', ['pdf', [@my.view_handler.pdf, 'createResponse'] ] ]

And this is it. Now it works perfect

Answer 2

If files will have different data content, then Controller could as well generate file on their own, returning results in BinaryFileResponse.

• No need to change any configuration
• _format can be used to pick desired file format
• All code reside inside controller (and some services related to particular format gen), so adding new stuff or changing existing require changes in small number of files.