API Docs for: v3.16.0-alpha.2
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RESTSerializer Class

Normally, applications will use the RESTSerializer by implementing the normalize method.

This allows you to do whatever kind of munging you need and is especially useful if your server is inconsistent and you need to do munging differently for many different kinds of responses.

See the normalize documentation for more information.

Across the Board Normalization

There are also a number of hooks that you might find useful to define across-the-board rules for your payload. These rules will be useful if your server is consistent, or if you're building an adapter for an infrastructure service, like Firebase, and want to encode service conventions.

For example, if all of your keys are underscored and all-caps, but otherwise consistent with the names you use in your models, you can implement across-the-board rules for how to convert an attribute name in your model to a key in your JSON.

import RESTSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/rest';
import { underscore } from '@ember/string';

export default RESTSerializer.extend({
  keyForAttribute(attr, method) {
    return underscore(attr).toUpperCase();
  }
});

You can also implement keyForRelationship, which takes the name of the relationship as the first parameter, the kind of relationship (hasMany or belongsTo) as the second parameter, and the method (serialize or deserialize) as the third parameter.

Methods

_canSerialize

(
  • key
)
Boolean private

Check attrs.key.serialize property to inform if the key can be serialized

Parameters:

Returns:

Boolean:

true if the key can be serialized

_getMappedKey

(
  • key
)
String private

Looks up the property key that was set by the custom attr mapping passed to the serializer.

Parameters:

Returns:

String:

key

_mustSerialize

(
  • key
)
Boolean private

When attrs.key.serialize is set to true then it takes priority over the other checks and the related attribute/relationship will be serialized

Parameters:

Returns:

Boolean:

true if the key must be serialized

_normalizeArray

(
  • store
  • modelName
  • arrayHash
  • prop
)
Object private

Normalizes an array of resource payloads and returns a JSON-API Document with primary data and, if any, included data as { data, included }.

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

_normalizeResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
  • isSingle
)
Object private

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

applyTransforms

(
  • typeClass
  • data
)
Object private

Given a subclass of Model and a JSON object this method will iterate through each attribute of the Model and invoke the Transform#deserialize method on the matching property of the JSON object. This method is typically called after the serializer's normalize method.

Parameters:

  • typeClass Model
  • data Object

    The data to transform

Returns:

Object:

data The transformed data object

extractAttributes

(
  • modelClass
  • resourceHash
)
Object

Returns the resource's attributes formatted as a JSON-API "attributes object".

http://jsonapi.org/format/#document-resource-object-attributes

Parameters:

  • modelClass Object
  • resourceHash Object

Returns:

Object:

extractErrors

(
  • store
  • typeClass
  • payload
  • id
)
Object

extractErrors is used to extract model errors when a call to Model#save fails with an InvalidError. By default Ember Data expects error information to be located on the errors property of the payload object.

This serializer expects this errors object to be an Array similar to the following, compliant with the https://jsonapi.org/format/#errors specification:

{
  "errors": [
    {
      "detail": "This username is already taken!",
      "source": {
        "pointer": "data/attributes/username"
      }
    }, {
      "detail": "Doesn't look like a valid email.",
      "source": {
        "pointer": "data/attributes/email"
      }
    }
  ]
}

The key detail provides a textual description of the problem. Alternatively, the key title can be used for the same purpose.

The nested keys source.pointer detail which specific element of the request data was invalid.

Note that JSON-API also allows for object-level errors to be placed in an object with pointer data, signifying that the problem cannot be traced to a specific attribute:

{
  "errors": [
    {
      "detail": "Some generic non property error message",
      "source": {
        "pointer": "data"
      }
    }
  ]
}

When turn into a Errors object, you can read these errors through the property base:

{{#each model.errors.base as |error|}}
  <div class="error">
    {{error.message}}
  </div>
{{/each}}

Example of alternative implementation, overriding the default behavior to deal with a different format of errors:

import DS from 'ember-data';

export default JSONSerializer.extend({
  extractErrors(store, typeClass, payload, id) {
    if (payload && typeof payload === 'object' && payload._problems) {
      payload = payload._problems;
      this.normalizeErrors(typeClass, payload);
    }
    return payload;
  }
});

Parameters:

  • store Store
  • typeClass Model
  • payload Object
  • id (String | Number)

Returns:

Object:

json The deserialized errors

extractId

(
  • modelClass
  • resourceHash
)
String

Returns the resource's ID.

Parameters:

  • modelClass Object
  • resourceHash Object

Returns:

extractMeta

(
  • store
  • modelClass
  • payload
)

extractMeta is used to deserialize any meta information in the adapter payload. By default Ember Data expects meta information to be located on the meta property of the payload object.

Example

import JSONSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/json';

export default JSONSerializer.extend({
  extractMeta(store, typeClass, payload) {
    if (payload && payload.hasOwnProperty('_pagination')) {
      let meta = payload._pagination;
      delete payload._pagination;
      return meta;
    }
  }
});

Parameters:

extractPolymorphicRelationship

(
  • relationshipType
  • relationshipHash
  • relationshipOptions
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer but overwritten in ../serializer/addon/rest.js:743

You can use this method to customize how a polymorphic relationship should be extracted.

Parameters:

  • relationshipType Object
  • relationshipHash Object
  • relationshipOptions Object

Returns:

Object:

extractRelationship

(
  • relationshipModelName
  • relationshipHash
)
Object

Returns a relationship formatted as a JSON-API "relationship object".

http://jsonapi.org/format/#document-resource-object-relationships

Parameters:

  • relationshipModelName Object
  • relationshipHash Object

Returns:

Object:

extractRelationships

(
  • modelClass
  • resourceHash
)
Object

Returns the resource's relationships formatted as a JSON-API "relationships object".

http://jsonapi.org/format/#document-resource-object-relationships

Parameters:

  • modelClass Object
  • resourceHash Object

Returns:

Object:

keyForAttribute

(
  • key
  • method
)
String

keyForAttribute can be used to define rules for how to convert an attribute name in your model to a key in your JSON.

Example

import JSONSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/json';
import { underscore } from '@ember/string';

export default JSONSerializer.extend({
  keyForAttribute(attr, method) {
    return underscore(attr).toUpperCase();
  }
});

Parameters:

Returns:

String:

normalized key

keyForPolymorphicType

(
  • key
  • typeClass
  • method
)
String

keyForPolymorphicType can be used to define a custom key when serializing and deserializing a polymorphic type. By default, the returned key is ${key}Type.

Example

import RESTSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/rest';

export default RESTSerializer.extend({
  keyForPolymorphicType(key, relationship) {
    var relationshipKey = this.keyForRelationship(key);

    return 'type-' + relationshipKey;
  }
});

Parameters:

Returns:

String:

normalized key

keyForRelationship

(
  • key
  • typeClass
  • method
)
String

keyForRelationship can be used to define a custom key when serializing and deserializing relationship properties. By default JSONSerializer does not provide an implementation of this method.

Example

import JSONSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/json';
import { underscore } from '@ember/string';

export default JSONSerializer.extend({
  keyForRelationship(key, relationship, method) {
    return rel_${underscore(key)};
  }
});

Parameters:

Returns:

String:

normalized key

modelNameFromPayloadKey

(
  • key
)
String

Inherited from JSONSerializer but overwritten in ../serializer/addon/rest.js:420

This method is used to convert each JSON root key in the payload into a modelName that it can use to look up the appropriate model for that part of the payload.

For example, your server may send a model name that does not correspond with the name of the model in your app. Let's take a look at an example model, and an example payload:

import Model from '@ember-data/model';

export default Model.extend({
});
  {
    "blog/post": {
      "id": "1
    }
  }

Ember Data is going to normalize the payload's root key for the modelName. As a result, it will try to look up the "blog/post" model. Since we don't have a model called "blog/post" (or a file called app/models/blog/post.js in ember-cli), Ember Data will throw an error because it cannot find the "blog/post" model.

Since we want to remove this namespace, we can define a serializer for the application that will remove "blog/" from the payload key whenver it's encountered by Ember Data:

import RESTSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/rest';

export default RESTSerializer.extend({
  modelNameFromPayloadKey(payloadKey) {
    if (payloadKey === 'blog/post') {
      return this._super(payloadKey.replace('blog/', ''));
    } else {
     return this._super(payloadKey);
    }
  }
});

After refreshing, Ember Data will appropriately look up the "post" model.

By default the modelName for a model is its name in dasherized form. This means that a payload key like "blogPost" would be normalized to "blog-post" when Ember Data looks up the model. Usually, Ember Data can use the correct inflection to do this for you. Most of the time, you won't need to override modelNameFromPayloadKey for this purpose.

Parameters:

Returns:

String:

the model's modelName

normalize

(
  • modelClass
  • resourceHash
  • prop
)
Object

Inherited from Serializer but overwritten in ../serializer/addon/rest.js:92

Normalizes a part of the JSON payload returned by the server. You should override this method, munge the hash and call super if you have generic normalization to do.

It takes the type of the record that is being normalized (as a Model class), the property where the hash was originally found, and the hash to normalize.

For example, if you have a payload that looks like this:

{
  "post": {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "Rails is omakase",
    "comments": [ 1, 2 ]
  },
  "comments": [{
    "id": 1,
    "body": "FIRST"
  }, {
    "id": 2,
    "body": "Rails is unagi"
  }]
}

The normalize method will be called three times:

  • With App.Post, "posts" and { id: 1, title: "Rails is omakase", ... }
  • With App.Comment, "comments" and { id: 1, body: "FIRST" }
  • With App.Comment, "comments" and { id: 2, body: "Rails is unagi" }

You can use this method, for example, to normalize underscored keys to camelized or other general-purpose normalizations. You will only need to implement normalize and manipulate the payload as desired.

For example, if the IDs under "comments" are provided as _id instead of id, you can specify how to normalize just the comments:

import RESTSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/rest';

export default RESTSerializer.extend({
  normalize(model, hash, prop) {
    if (prop === 'comments') {
      hash.id = hash._id;
      delete hash._id;
    }

    return this._super(...arguments);
  }
});

On each call to the normalize method, the third parameter (prop) is always one of the keys that were in the original payload or in the result of another normalization as normalizeResponse.

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

normalizeArrayResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:433

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeCreateRecordResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:363

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeDeleteRecordResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:377

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeFindAllResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:293

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeFindBelongsToResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:307

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeFindHasManyResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:321

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeFindManyResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:335

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeFindRecordResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:265

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeQueryRecordResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:279

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeQueryResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:349

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeRelationships

() private

normalizeResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from Serializer but overwritten in ../serializer/addon/json.js:205

Available since 1.13.0

The normalizeResponse method is used to normalize a payload from the server to a JSON-API Document.

http://jsonapi.org/format/#document-structure

This method delegates to a more specific normalize method based on the requestType.

To override this method with a custom one, make sure to call return this._super(store, primaryModelClass, payload, id, requestType) with your pre-processed data.

Here's an example of using normalizeResponse manually:

socket.on('message', function(message) {
  var data = message.data;
  var modelClass = store.modelFor(data.modelName);
  var serializer = store.serializerFor(data.modelName);
  var normalized = serializer.normalizeSingleResponse(store, modelClass, data, data.id);

  store.push(normalized);
});

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeSaveResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:405

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeSingleResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:419

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeUpdateRecordResponse

(
  • store
  • primaryModelClass
  • payload
  • id
  • requestType
)
Object

Inherited from JSONSerializer: ../serializer/addon/json.js:391

Available since 1.13.0

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

JSON-API Document

normalizeUsingDeclaredMapping

() private

payloadKeyFromModelName

(
  • modelName
)
String

You can use payloadKeyFromModelName to override the root key for an outgoing request. By default, the RESTSerializer returns a camelized version of the model's name.

For a model called TacoParty, its modelName would be the string taco-party. The RESTSerializer will send it to the server with tacoParty as the root key in the JSON payload:

{
  "tacoParty": {
    "id": "1",
    "location": "Matthew Beale's House"
  }
}

For example, your server may expect dasherized root objects:

import RESTSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/rest';
import { dasherize } from '@ember/string';

export default RESTSerializer.extend({
  payloadKeyFromModelName(modelName) {
    return dasherize(modelName);
  }
});

Given a TacoParty model, calling save on it would produce an outgoing request like:

{
  "taco-party": {
    "id": "1",
    "location": "Matthew Beale's House"
  }
}

Parameters:

Returns:

pushPayload

(
  • store
  • payload
)

This method allows you to push a payload containing top-level collections of records organized per type.

{
  "posts": [{
    "id": "1",
    "title": "Rails is omakase",
    "author", "1",
    "comments": [ "1" ]
  }],
  "comments": [{
    "id": "1",
    "body": "FIRST"
  }],
  "users": [{
    "id": "1",
    "name": "@d2h"
  }]
}

It will first normalize the payload, so you can use this to push in data streaming in from your server structured the same way that fetches and saves are structured.

Parameters:

  • store Store
  • payload Object

serialize

(
  • snapshot
  • options
)
Object

Inherited from Serializer but overwritten in ../serializer/addon/rest.js:484

Called when a record is saved in order to convert the record into JSON.

By default, it creates a JSON object with a key for each attribute and belongsTo relationship.

For example, consider this model:

import Model, { attr, belongsTo } from '@ember-data/model';

export default Model.extend({
  title: attr(),
  body: attr(),

  author: belongsTo('user')
});

The default serialization would create a JSON object like:

{
  "title": "Rails is unagi",
  "body": "Rails? Omakase? O_O",
  "author": 12
}

By default, attributes are passed through as-is, unless you specified an attribute type (attr('date')). If you specify a transform, the JavaScript value will be serialized when inserted into the JSON hash.

By default, belongs-to relationships are converted into IDs when inserted into the JSON hash.

IDs

serialize takes an options hash with a single option: includeId. If this option is true, serialize will, by default include the ID in the JSON object it builds.

The adapter passes in includeId: true when serializing a record for createRecord, but not for updateRecord.

Customization

Your server may expect a different JSON format than the built-in serialization format.

In that case, you can implement serialize yourself and return a JSON hash of your choosing.

import RESTSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/rest';

export default RESTSerializer.extend({
  serialize(snapshot, options) {
    var json = {
      POST_TTL: snapshot.attr('title'),
      POST_BDY: snapshot.attr('body'),
      POST_CMS: snapshot.hasMany('comments', { ids: true })
    };

    if (options.includeId) {
      json.POST_ID_ = snapshot.id;
    }

    return json;
  }
});

Customizing an App-Wide Serializer

If you want to define a serializer for your entire application, you'll probably want to use eachAttribute and eachRelationship on the record.

import RESTSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/rest';
import { pluralize } from 'ember-inflector';

export default RESTSerializer.extend({
  serialize(snapshot, options) {
    var json = {};

    snapshot.eachAttribute(function(name) {
      json[serverAttributeName(name)] = snapshot.attr(name);
    });

    snapshot.eachRelationship(function(name, relationship) {
      if (relationship.kind === 'hasMany') {
        json[serverHasManyName(name)] = snapshot.hasMany(name, { ids: true });
      }
    });

    if (options.includeId) {
      json.ID_ = snapshot.id;
    }

    return json;
  }
});

function serverAttributeName(attribute) {
  return attribute.underscore().toUpperCase();
}

function serverHasManyName(name) {
  return serverAttributeName(singularize(name)) + "_IDS";
}

This serializer will generate JSON that looks like this:

{
  "TITLE": "Rails is omakase",
  "BODY": "Yep. Omakase.",
  "COMMENT_IDS": [ 1, 2, 3 ]
}

Tweaking the Default JSON

If you just want to do some small tweaks on the default JSON, you can call super first and make the tweaks on the returned JSON.

import RESTSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/rest';

export default RESTSerializer.extend({
  serialize(snapshot, options) {
    var json = this._super(snapshot, options);

    json.subject = json.title;
    delete json.title;

    return json;
  }
});

Parameters:

Returns:

Object:

json

serializeAttribute

(
  • snapshot
  • json
  • key
  • attribute
)

serializeAttribute can be used to customize how attr properties are serialized

For example if you wanted to ensure all your attributes were always serialized as properties on an attributes object you could write:

import JSONSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/json';

export default JSONSerializer.extend({
  serializeAttribute(snapshot, json, key, attributes) {
    json.attributes = json.attributes || {};
    this._super(snapshot, json.attributes, key, attributes);
  }
});

Parameters:

serializeBelongsTo

(
  • snapshot
  • json
  • relationship
)

serializeBelongsTo can be used to customize how belongsTo properties are serialized.

Example

import JSONSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/json';
import { isNone } from '@ember/utils';

export default JSONSerializer.extend({
  serializeBelongsTo(snapshot, json, relationship) {
    var key = relationship.key;
    var belongsTo = snapshot.belongsTo(key);

    key = this.keyForRelationship ? this.keyForRelationship(key, "belongsTo", "serialize") : key;

    json[key] = isNone(belongsTo) ? belongsTo : belongsTo.record.toJSON();
  }
});

Parameters:

  • snapshot Snapshot
  • json Object
  • relationship Object

serializeHasMany

(
  • snapshot
  • json
  • relationship
)

serializeHasMany can be used to customize how hasMany properties are serialized.

Example

import JSONSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/json';
import DS from 'ember-data';

export default JSONSerializer.extend({
  serializeHasMany(snapshot, json, relationship) {
    var key = relationship.key;
    if (key === 'comments') {
      return;
    } else {
      this._super(...arguments);
    }
  }
});

Parameters:

  • snapshot Snapshot
  • json Object
  • relationship Object

serializeIntoHash

(
  • hash
  • typeClass
  • snapshot
  • options
)

Inherited from JSONSerializer but overwritten in ../serializer/addon/rest.js:640

You can use this method to customize the root keys serialized into the JSON. The hash property should be modified by reference (possibly using something like _.extend) By default the REST Serializer sends the modelName of a model, which is a camelized version of the name.

For example, your server may expect underscored root objects.

import RESTSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/rest';
import { decamelize } from '@ember/string';

export default RESTSerializer.extend({
  serializeIntoHash(data, type, record, options) {
    var root = decamelize(type.modelName);
    data[root] = this.serialize(record, options);
  }
});

Parameters:

serializePolymorphicType

(
  • snapshot
  • json
  • relationship
)

Inherited from JSONSerializer but overwritten in ../serializer/addon/rest.js:721

You can use this method to customize how polymorphic objects are serialized. By default the REST Serializer creates the key by appending Type to the attribute and value from the model's camelcased model name.

Parameters:

  • snapshot Snapshot
  • json Object
  • relationship Object

shouldSerializeHasMany

(
  • snapshot
  • key
  • relationshipType
)
Boolean

Check if the given hasMany relationship should be serialized

By default only many-to-many and many-to-none relationships are serialized. This could be configured per relationship by Serializer's attrs object.

Parameters:

Returns:

Boolean:

true if the hasMany relationship should be serialized

transformFor

(
  • attributeType
  • skipAssertion
)
Transform private

Parameters:

  • attributeType String
  • skipAssertion Boolean

Returns:

Transform:

transform

Properties

attrs

Object

The attrs object can be used to declare a simple mapping between property names on Model records and payload keys in the serialized JSON object representing the record. An object with the property key can also be used to designate the attribute's key on the response payload.

Example

import Model, { attr } from '@ember-data/model';

export default Model.extend({
  firstName: attr('string'),
  lastName: attr('string'),
  occupation: attr('string'),
  admin: attr('boolean')
});
import JSONSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/json';

export default JSONSerializer.extend({
  attrs: {
    admin: 'is_admin',
    occupation: { key: 'career' }
  }
});

You can also remove attributes and relationships by setting the serialize key to false in your mapping object.

Example

import JSONSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/json';

export default JSONSerializer.extend({
  attrs: {
    admin: { serialize: false },
    occupation: { key: 'career' }
  }
});

When serialized:

{
  "firstName": "Harry",
  "lastName": "Houdini",
  "career": "magician"
}

Note that the admin is now not included in the payload.

Setting serialize to true enforces serialization for hasMany relationships even if it's neither a many-to-many nor many-to-none relationship.

primaryKey

String

The primaryKey is used when serializing and deserializing data. Ember Data always uses the id property to store the id of the record. The external source may not always follow this convention. In these cases it is useful to override the primaryKey property to match the primaryKey of your external store.

Example

import JSONSerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/json';

export default JSONSerializer.extend({
  primaryKey: '_id'
});

Default: 'id'

store

Store public

The store property is the application's store that contains all records. It can be used to look up serializers for other model types that may be nested inside the payload response.

Example:

Serializer.extend({
  extractRelationship(relationshipModelName, relationshipHash) {
    var modelClass = this.store.modelFor(relationshipModelName);
    var relationshipSerializer = this.store.serializerFor(relationshipModelName);
    return relationshipSerializer.normalize(modelClass, relationshipHash);
  }
});