Deserialize array of objects in a property of an object

[Crell]

Serializer component question. I have an array like this:

$data =  [
        'caching' => [
            'cacheConfigurations' => [
                'hash' => [
                    'backend' => 'TYPO3\\CMS\\Core\\Cache\\Backend\\Typo3DatabaseBackend',
                ],
                'imagesizes' => [
                    'backend' => 'TYPO3\\CMS\\Core\\Cache\\Backend\\Typo3DatabaseBackend',
                    'options' => [
                        'compression' => true,
                    ],
                ],
           ],
       ],
];

And I'm trying to denormalize it into an object structure like this:

class System
{
    public function __construct(
        /** @var CacheConfig[] */
        public array $cacheConfigurations = [],
}

class CacheConfig 
{
    public function __construct(
        public string $backend = '',
        #[SerializedName('options')]
        public ?CacheOptions $options = null,
    ) {}
}

Serializer definition:

    protected function getSerializer(): Serializer
    {
        $classMetadataFactory = new ClassMetadataFactory(new AnnotationLoader(new AnnotationReader()));
        $metadataAwareNameConverter = new MetadataAwareNameConverter($classMetadataFactory);
        $infoExtractor = new ReflectionExtractor();

        $normalizer =  new ObjectNormalizer(
            classMetadataFactory: $classMetadataFactory,
            nameConverter: $metadataAwareNameConverter,
            propertyTypeExtractor: $infoExtractor,
        );

        return new Serializer([new DateTimeNormalizer(), new PropertyNormalizer(), new ArrayDenormalizer(), $normalizer]);
    }

Problem: The $cacheConfigurations property is always coming back as an empty array. It's just getting skipped. I do have the ArrayDenormalizer set up in my Serializer class, but I'm not clear on how to trigger it in this case. Suggestions? What connection or definition am I missing?

[lyrixx]

I guess you missed the PHPdoc extractor

[Crell]

Hm. That allows the typed properties to work again, but the array-of-objects property is still not being populated.

[lyrixx]

Could you paste a full reproducer please, 🙏🏼 ?

[Crell]

Code here: https://github.com/Crell/serializer-test

It's a phpunit project, just testing out the serializer, basically. The specific test that's failing is this:

https://github.com/Crell/serializer-test/blob/master/tests/SerializerConfigTest.php#L127

Where I'm trying to objectify this segment of a config file: https://github.com/Crell/serializer-test/blob/master/tests/LocalConfiguration.php#L85

Everything except the cacheConfigurations part is working. That one, I'm just not sure how to coax it into loading the items into CacheConfig objects. Instead the var_dump() shows it's always just an empty array.

(Note: There is a non-zero chance I'm just making some incredibly stupid embarrassing mistake. I am prepared for this.)

[lyrixx]

You have a mismatch between the PHP model and the raw data. See the PR, it'll be simpler to understand :)

Crell/serializer-test#1

---

You code was supposed to process:

    'SYS' => [
        'cacheConfigurations' => [

But it's:

    'SYS' => [
        'caching' => [
            'cacheConfigurations' => [

[Crell]

Ahhh... Yep, incredibly stupid embarrassing mistake it was. Thanks!