Silverstripe DataObject (de-)serializer

Example configuration (mysite/_config/config.yml)

DataObjectSerializer: # module configuration namespace
    show_model_class: false # shorten json output
    override_precedence: merge # possible values: property, group or merge. Only merge is implemented at the moment
    Member: # DataObject
        groups: # configuration identifier
            short: # group name
                - FirstName # property
                - Surname
            medium:
                - FirstName
                - Surname
                - Email
                - Groups(properties:Title,Code) # relation component with serialization override to serialize speciffic fields only
            long:
                - FirstName
                - Surname
                - Email
                - Homepage
                - Avatar(properties:Url)
                - Groups(group:short) # relation component with serialization override to serialize speciffic group
            member_email:
                - Email
    Group:
        groups:
            short:
                - Title
            long:
                - Title
                - Code
            with_members_short:
                - Title
                - Code
                - Members(group:short)
    Image:
        groups:
            long:
                - Url

Example usage:

Suppose we have following code:

mysite/code/MemberExtension.php:

class MemberExtension extends DataExtension {
    private static $db = array(
        'Homepage' => 'Varchar'
    );
    private static $has_one = array(
        'Avatar' => 'Image'
    );
}

mysite/code/_config.php:

...

Member::add_extension('MemberExtension');

...

mysite/code/Page.php:

class Page_Controller extends ContentController {

    ...

    public function member() {
        $data = array();
        if ($member = Member::currentUser()) {
            $data = $member->serialize(array('short','long'));
        }
        $response = new SS_HTTP_Response();
        $response->setBody($data);
        $response->addHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
        return $response;
    }
}

With above configuration and code, when accessing /member it will produce output similar to:

{
    "ID": 1,
    "FirstName": "Default",
    "Surname": "Admin",
    "Email": "admin@localhost.dev",
    "Groups": [
        {
            "ID": 1,
            "Title": "Content Authors",
            "Code": "content-authors"
        },
        {
            "ID": 2,
            "Title": "Administrators",
            "Code": "administrators"
        }
    ],
    "Homepage": "http://admin.homepage.com",
    "Avatar": {
        "ID": 4,
        "Url": "/assets/Uploads/300x180-white.png"
    }
}

TODO

• deserialization
• nested loop protection
• property and group override precedence
• group access control
• fine grained property access control
• url properties and groups query override (partial query) This is actually is job for the controller.