JMS Serializer Overriding Groups in FOSRestBundle

Question

I read this article about overriding groups of child properties:

use JMS\Serializer\SerializationContext;

$context = SerializationContext::create()->setGroups(array(
    'Default', // Serialize John's name
    'manager_group', // Serialize John's manager
    'friends_group', // Serialize John's friends

    'manager' => array( // Override the groups for the manager of John
        'Default', // Serialize John manager's name
        'friends_group', // Serialize John manager's friends. If you do not override the groups for the friends, it will default to Default.
    ),

    'friends' => array( // Override the groups for the friends of John
        'manager_group' // Serialize John friends' managers.

        'manager' => array( // Override the groups for the John friends' manager
            'Default', // This would be the default if you did not override the groups of the manager property.
        ),
    ),
));
$serializer->serialize($john, 'json', $context);

In FOSRestBundle I am using the @View annotation with the serializerGroups property:

/**
 * @Rest\Get("/api/users/{id}", name="api_get_user")
 * @Rest\View(serializerGroups={"Default", "detail", "friends":{"Default"})
 */
public function getAction(Request $request, User $user = null)
{
    return $user;
}

How can I override child properties using that annotation?

Answer 1

If someone finds a better and shorter way with annotations I can award the bounty (since I can't get it back).

The only way to override nested properties' groups is to get the serializer context from the view and set the groups from there. Here it is:

/**
 * @Rest\Get("/api/users/profile", name="api_get_profile")
 */
public function profileAction(Request $request)
{
    $user = $this->getUser();

    // sets different groups for nested properties
    $view = $this->view($user);
    $view->getContext()->setGroups(array(
        'Default',
        'user_detail',
        'user_profile',
        'friends' => array(
            'Default',
        )
    ));

    return $this->handleView($view);
}

This way my profileAction will return an user with all the user_detail and user_profile groups, but the items in the friends property, which contains an array of User, will just contain the properties defined in the Default group.

This is the result:

{
    "id": 532,
    "username": "someuser",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "enabled": true,
    "last_login": "2017-11-10T09:45:51+01:00",
    "notification_id": "ABC",
    "avatar_id": 3,
    "friends": [
        {
            "id": 530,
            "username": "anotheruser",
            "avatar_id": 5
        },
        {
            "id": 554,
            "username": "johndoe",
            "avatar_id": 7
        }
    ]
}