How to disable IRI generation for API Resource when normalizing

[andersmateusz]

Hey, I have encountered following problem when normalizing data in my Symfony app where I use API Platform as bundle. I have 'File' entity registered as API resource. When invoking follwing code:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Controller;

use App\Entity\Client;
use App\Entity\Complaint;
use App\Entity\File;
use App\Repository\ClientRepository;
use App\Repository\FileRepository;
use App\Service\AzureBlobServiceAdapter;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\JsonResponse;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Attribute\MapQueryParameter;
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Exception\BadRequestHttpException;
use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\SerializerInterface;

#[Route('/storage')]
final class StorageController extends AbstractController
{
    public const DEFAULT_CONTAINER_NAME = 'files';

    #[Route('/store', name: 'app_storage_store', methods: ['POST'])]
    public function store(Request $request, AzureBlobServiceAdapter $azureBlobService, SerializerInterface $serializer, ClientRepository $clientRepository): JsonResponse
    {
        $file = new File();
        $normalize = $serializer->normalize($file);

I get an error: 'Unable to generate an IRI for the item of type "App\Entity\File"'. In general it happens when I want to normalize API resource that is not persisted yet and does not have id issigned.
Now the questions are:
How to disable IRI generation in normalization context (if possible)?
How to disable linking API docs in response header for routes that are not API platform routes?
Can I define in API Platform which are and which are not API routes (for example all routes that start with prefix '/api' should return docs and rest of them not)?
Why API Platform interferes in Symfony serialization process?

Thank you for your response in advance.

[soyuka]

How to disable IRI generation in normalization context (if possible)?

genId: false or custom normalizer

How to disable linking API docs in response header for routes that are not API platform routes?

By not using API Platform but a controller ? If you really want to you can override the AddLinkProcessor or even delete any Link header before the response but there's no configuration for that yet.

Can I define in API Platform which are and which are not API routes (for example all routes that start with prefix '/api' should return docs and rest of them not)?

By not using API Platform but a controller ?

Why API Platform interferes in Symfony serialization process?

It shouldn't.

[andersmateusz]

I've figured out that Api Platform changes priority of normalizers so ApiPlatform\Serializer\ItemNormalizer has higher priority than Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\ObjectNormalizer. And I do not see any way to change this by providing context. This is supportsNormalization method of ApiPlatform\Serializer\AbstractItemNormalizer:

    public function supportsNormalization(mixed $data, string $format = null, array $context = []): bool
    {
        if (!\is_object($data) || is_iterable($data)) {
            return false;
        }

        $class = $context['force_resource_class'] ?? $this->getObjectClass($data);
        if (($context['output']['class'] ?? null) === $class) {
            return true;
        }

        return $this->resourceClassResolver->isResourceClass($class);
    }

Workaround for me is to use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\ObjectNormalizer directly or to construct my serializer by providing normalizers argument.

Returning to the subject of disabling linking docs in response header it seems that whenever Content-Type: application/json is requested then link to Api Platform docs is added to header in kernel response event listener. Generally I have one backend both for admin app and also for client app. Admin app is server-side rendered and there are some AJAX requests, but it is not in any way connected to Api Platform. I would rather have separation of concerns, but is not strict requirement.

genId normalization context set to false does not cause disabling generation of IRI and I do not see this in normalizers code as well.

Thank you for your reponse :)

[soyuka]

what version do you use ? you can also override our service with yours to get rid of priority issues

[andersmateusz]

            "name": "api-platform/core",
            "version": "v3.1.18",