Serializers

Bernard uses the Symfony Serializer Component to serialize messages as JSON for persistent storage.

Default serializer

By default Bernard can handle serializing the Bernard\Envelope and Bernard\Message\PlainMessage classes, which should be enough when you are just starting out:

<?php

use Bernard\Serializer;

$serializer = new Serializer();
$json = $serializer->serialize($envelope);

Adding normalizers

If you are using your own custom message classes, you must provide a normalizer for them. This example assumes your message contains getters and setters for the properties it needs serializing:

<?php

use Bernard\Normalizer\PlainMessageNormalizer;
use Bernard\Normalizer\EnvelopeNormalizer;
use Bernard\Serializer;
use Normalt\Normalizer\AggregateNormalizer;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\GetSetMethodNormalizer;

$aggregateNormalizer = new AggregateNormalizer([
    new EnvelopeNormalizer(),
    new GetSetMethodNormalizer(),
    new PlainMessageNormalizer(),
]);

$serializer = new Serializer($aggregateNormalizer);
$envelope = $serializer->deserialize($json);

The AggregateNormalizer will check each normalizer passed to its constructor and use the first one that can handle the object given to it. You should always pass the EnvelopeNormalizer first. And it’s a good idea to add the PlainMessageNormalizer last as a fallback when none other match.

More normalizers are available from Symfony, along with the DoctrineNormalizer and RecursiveReflectionNormalizer from Normalt.