FOSRestBundle is a popular bundle to rapidly develop RESTful APIs with Symfony. This page provides a guide to help developers migrating from FOSRestBundle to API Platform.
On 21 September, 2021, FOSRestBundle’s creators recommended to use API Platform.
The table below provides a list of the main features you can find in FOSRestBundle 3.1, and their equivalents in API Platform.
In FOSRestBundle
Create a controller extending the AbstractFOSRestController abstract class, make your magic manually in your methods and return responses through the handleView() provided by FOSRest’s ControllerTrait.
See The view layer.
In API Platform
Add the ApiResource attribute to your entities, and enable operations you desire inside. By default, every operations are activated.
See Operations.
In FOSRestBundle
Same as above.
In API Platform
Even though this is not recommended, API Platform allows you to create custom controllers and declare them in your entity’s ApiResource attribute.
You can use them as you migrate from FOSRestBundle, but you should consider switching to Symfony Messenger as it will give you more benefits, such as compatibility with both REST and GraphQL, and better performances of your API on big tasks.
See General Design Considerations.
In FOSRestBundle
Annotate your controllers with FOSRest’s route annotations that are the most suitable to your needs.
In API Platform
Use the ApiResource attribute to activate the HTTP methods you need for your entity. By default, all the methods are enabled.
See Operations.
In FOSRestBundle
Listen to FOSRest’s events to modify the requests before they come into your controllers, and the responses after they come out of them.
See Listener support.
In API Platform
API Platform provides a lot of ways to customize the behavior of your API, depending on what you exactly want to do.
See Extending API Platform for more details.
In FOSRestBundle
Only the request body’s format can be customized.
Use body listeners to use either FOSRest’s own decoders or your own ones. FOSRestBundle provides native support for JSON and XML.
See Body Listener.
In API Platform
Both the request and the response body’s format can be customized.
You can configure the formats of the API either globally or in specific resources or operations. API Platform provides native support for multiple formats including JSON, XML, CSV, YAML, etc.
See Content negotiation.
In FOSRestBundle
Only request bodies can be converted before entering into your controller.
FOSRest provides two native normalizers for converting the names of your JSON keys to camelCase. You can create your own ones by implementing the ArrayNormalizerInterface.
See Body Listeners.
In API Platform
Both request and response bodies can be converted.
API Platform uses name converters included in the Serializer component of Symfony. You can create your own by implementing the NameConverterInterface provided by Symfony.
See Name Conversion in The Serialization Process.
In FOSRestBundle
Map the exceptions to HTTP statuses in the fos_rest.exception parameter.
See ExceptionController support.
In API Platform
Map the exceptions to HTTP statuses in the api_platform.exception_to_status parameter.
See Errors Handling.
In FOSRestBundle
Use Symfony’s Security component to control your API access.
In API Platform
Use the security attribute in the ApiResource and ApiProperty attributes. It is an Expression language string describing who can access your resources or who can see the properties of your resources. By default, everything is accessible without authentication.
Note you can also use the security.yml file if you only need to limit access to specific roles.
See Security.
In FOSRestBundle
FOSRestBundle provides a way to provide versions to your APIs in a way users have to specify which one they want to use.
See API versioning.
In API Platform
API Platform has no native support to API versioning, but instead provides an approach consisting of deprecating resources when needed. It allows a smoother upgrade for clients, as they need to change their code only when it is necessary.
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