Symfony - FOSRestBundle - show selected fields - symfony

Question

I'm trying to show only selected fields in my REST action in controller.
I've found one solution - I can set groups in Entities/Models and select this group in annotation above action in my Controller.
But actually i don't want use groups, i want determine which fields i wanna expose.
I see one solution - I can create one group for every field in my Entities/Model. Like this:
class User
{
/**
* #var integer
*
* #Groups({"entity_user_id"})
*/
protected $id;
/**
* #var string
*
* #Groups({"entity_user_firstName"})
*/
protected $firstName;
/**
* #var string
*
* #Groups({"entity_user_lastName"})
*/
protected $lastName;
}
And then i can list fields above controller action.
My questions are:
Can I use better solution for this?
Can I list all groups? Like I can list all routes or all services.

Answer 1

This is mainly about serialization not about fosrestbundle itself.
The right way would be to create your own fieldserialization strategy.
This article got it down really nicely:
http://jolicode.com/blog/how-to-implement-your-own-fields-inclusion-rules-with-jms-serializer
It build a custom exclusion strategy as describeted here:
How do I create a custom exclusion strategy for JMS Serializer that allows me to make run-time decisions about whether to include a particular field?
Example code from first link for reference:
custom FieldExclusion strategy:
namespace Acme\Bundle\ApiBundle\Serializer\Exclusion;
use JMS\Serializer\Exclusion\ExclusionStrategyInterface;
use JMS\Serializer\Metadata\ClassMetadata;
use JMS\Serializer\Metadata\PropertyMetadata;
use JMS\Serializer\Context;
class FieldsListExclusionStrategy implements ExclusionStrategyInterface
{
private $fields = array();
public function __construct(array $fields)
{
$this->fields = $fields;
}
/**
* {#inheritDoc}
*/
public function shouldSkipClass(ClassMetadata $metadata, Context $navigatorContext)
{
return false;
}
/**
* {#inheritDoc}
*/
public function shouldSkipProperty(PropertyMetadata $property, Context $navigatorContext)
{
if (empty($this->fields)) {
return false;
}
$name = $property->serializedName ?: $property->name;
return !in_array($name, $this->fields);
}
}
Interface
interface ExclusionStrategyInterface
{
public function shouldSkipClass(ClassMetadata $metadata, Context $context);
public function shouldSkipProperty(PropertyMetadata $property, Context $context);
}
usage
in controller or where you need it:
$context = new SerializationContext();
$fieldList = ['id', 'title']; // fields to return
$context->addExclusionStrategy(
new FieldsListExclusionStrategy($fieldList)
);
// serialization
$serializer->serialize(new Pony(), 'json', $context);
You should be also able to mix and match with groups eg. you can also set $content->setGroups(['myGroup']) together with the fieldExclusio