Migrate From FOSRestBundle with Symfony

FOSRestBundle is a popular bundle to rapidly develop RESTful APIs with Symfony. This page provides a guide to help developers migrate from FOSRestBundle to API Platform.

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Since 2021, the creators of FOSRestBundle have recommended transitioning to API Platform as the preferred solution for building modern APIs.

# Features Comparison

The table below provides a list of the main features you can find in FOSRestBundle 3.1, and their equivalents in API Platform.

# Make CRUD endpoints

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 the operations you desire inside. By default, every operation is activated.

See Operations.

# Make custom controllers

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.

# Routing system (with native documentation support)

In FOSRestBundle

Annotate your controllers with FOSRest’s route annotations that are the most suitable to your needs.

See Full default annotations.

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.

# Hook into the handling of the requests

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.

# Customize the formats of the requests and the responses

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.

# Name conversion

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.

# Handle errors

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.

# Security

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.

# API versioning

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 for 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.

See Deprecating Resources and Properties.