Remove items key from embedded array in paginated list

[webdevilopers]

We have a pagerfanta collection representation which uses the items default key on the _embedded array:

{
  "page": 1,
  "limit": 10,
  "pages": 461,
  "total": 4610,
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "\/service_contracts?page=1&limit=10"
    },
    "first": {
      "href": "\/service_contracts?page=1&limit=10"
    },
    "last": {
      "href": "\/service_contracts?page=461&limit=10"
    },
    "next": {
      "href": "\/service_contracts?page=2&limit=10"
    }
  },
  "_embedded": {
    "items": [
      {
        "contractId": "1f432848-0303-490c-a86f-4a2b1a2a1aba",
        "createdAt": "2015-08-13T00:00:00+02:00"
      },
      {
        "contractId": "097acd77-14bf-4409-855c-677e570f555a",
        "createdAt": "2015-08-13T00:00:00+02:00"
      }
    ]
  }
}

We need to remove the _items key.

However I was able to manage it by using a custom representation based on the original Hateoas\Representation\CollectionRepresentation:

class Representation
{
    /**
     * @var mixed
     */
    private $_embedded;

    /**
     * @param array|\Traversable $resources
     */
    public function __construct($resources)
    {
        if ($resources instanceof \Traversable) {
            $resources = iterator_to_array($resources);
        }

        $this->_embedded      = $resources;
    }

    /**
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getResources()
    {
        return $this->_embedded;
    }

But this looks like an ugly hack. Is there a better way?

Came from @willdurand @schmittjoh :

• https://twitter.com/webdevilopers/status/1244636707926036480

[goetas]

Can you please post the expected JSON?

[webdevilopers]

{
  "page": 1,
  "limit": 10,
  "pages": 461,
  "total": 4610,
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "\/service_contracts?page=1&limit=10"
    },
    "first": {
      "href": "\/service_contracts?page=1&limit=10"
    },
    "last": {
      "href": "\/service_contracts?page=461&limit=10"
    },
    "next": {
      "href": "\/service_contracts?page=2&limit=10"
    }
  },
  "_embedded": [
      {
        "contractId": "1f432848-0303-490c-a86f-4a2b1a2a1aba",
        "createdAt": "2015-08-13T00:00:00+02:00"
      },
      {
        "contractId": "097acd77-14bf-4409-855c-677e570f555a",
        "createdAt": "2015-08-13T00:00:00+02:00"
      }
    ]
}

[webdevilopers]

Maybe it is possible with a custom JsonHalSerializer?

• Is there any way to override keys _links & _embedded in the JsonHalSerializer  #175

[goetas]

See my comments in #284 (comment), in particular:

Hateoas\Representation* classes are deprecated, recommended user-land implementations

What you are asking is not part of JSON-HAL as in that spec, each embedded must have a name and be a resource.

[webdevilopers]

Thank you for your feedback @goetas .
I would like to support my UI team with using the actual JSON-HAL spec. Do you have a link where this is mentioned?

[goetas]

https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-kelly-json-hal-08#section-4.1.2

It is an object whose property names are link relation types

The part: object whose property names are link relation types, in your case is an array, and this is already wrong by the spec.