Nested fields and expand in REST API

[ghost]

Facebook Graph API also uses fields and expand query parameters in REST APIs. Now Yii2 supports same but upto 1 level. Can we do nested fields like Facebook, for example:

GET graph.facebook.com/me?fields=albums.limit(5){name, photos.limit(2){name, picture, tags.limit(2)}},posts.limit(5)

In above example, my albums are limits to 5 only and again in each album only name and photos fields will be fetched with max 2 photos per album with again photos nested to give max 2 tags per photo. Along with albums, it will also give max 5 posts of the user.

Now limit(n) would be advance feature but I think nested expand is something easy to implement and really necessary feature to have.

PS: On separate note if you plan to support nested limit, you can also look into offset and sort on nested elements.

[fernandezekiel]

as @qiangxue said, this is more of a rare case
#303 (comment)
i am however looking forward on how to implement this

[lichunqiang]

Hi all

What's going on about this question.

[akaNightmare]

hi, maybe it make sense implement simple functionality like:

 expand="user.contacts"

(nested relations)

[mdmunir]

My solusion #6844 (comment)

[Yiivgeny]

+1

[josegustavo]

How I can convert this:

id,name,items{id,title,categories{id,title,image},relates{id,title,image},image},image

in this:

{ 'id' : {}, 'name' : {}, 'items' : { 'id' : {}, 'title' : {}, 'categories' : { 'id' : {}, 'title' : {}, 'image' : {} }, 'relates' : { 'id' : {}, 'title' : {}, 'image' : {} }, 'image' : {} }, image : {} }

[tunecino]

GET graph.facebook.com/me?fields=albums.limit(5){name, photos.limit(2){name, picture, tags.limit(2)}},posts.limit(5)

This looks more like a query language than REST. Maybe a complete implementation of GraphQL as extension would be better than adding it as feature to current REST?

some resources:
https://facebook.github.io/graphql/
https://philsturgeon.uk/api/2017/01/24/graphql-vs-rest-overview/
https://github.com/webonyx/graphql-php

[Faryshta]

to me it looks like a proposal for aggregated reporting in SOA.

http://arnon.me/soa-patterns/aggregated-reporting/

which i have no idea how to implement in php

[yii-bot]

Issue moved to yiisoft/yii-api#11