Class JSONAPISerializer

⚠️ This is LEGACY documentation for a feature that is no longer encouraged to be used. If starting a new app or thinking of implementing a new adapter, consider writing a Handler instead to be used with the RequestManager

In EmberData a Serializer is used to serialize and deserialize records when they are transferred in and out of an external source. This process involves normalizing property names, transforming attribute values and serializing relationships.

JSONAPISerializer supports the http://jsonapi.org/ spec and is the serializer recommended by Ember Data.

This serializer normalizes a JSON API payload that looks like:

 import Model, { attr, belongsTo } from '@ember-data/model';

 export default class Player extends Model {
   @attr('string') name;
   @attr('string') skill;
   @attr('number') gamesPlayed;
   @belongsTo('club') club;
 }

 import Model, { attr, hasMany } from '@ember-data/model';

 export default class Club extends Model {
   @attr('string') name;
   @attr('string') location;
   @hasMany('player') players;
 }

   {
     "data": [
       {
         "attributes": {
           "name": "Benfica",
           "location": "Portugal"
         },
         "id": "1",
         "relationships": {
           "players": {
             "data": [
               {
                 "id": "3",
                 "type": "players"
               }
             ]
           }
         },
         "type": "clubs"
       }
     ],
     "included": [
       {
         "attributes": {
           "name": "Eusebio Silva Ferreira",
           "skill": "Rocket shot",
           "games-played": 431
         },
         "id": "3",
         "relationships": {
           "club": {
             "data": {
               "id": "1",
               "type": "clubs"
             }
           }
         },
         "type": "players"
       }
     ]
   }

to the format that the Ember Data store expects.

### Customizing meta

Since a JSON API Document can have meta defined in multiple locations you can use the specific serializer hooks if you need to customize the meta.

One scenario would be to camelCase the meta keys of your payload. The example below shows how this could be done using normalizeArrayResponse and extractRelationship.

 import JSONAPISerializer from '@ember-data/serializer/json-api';

 export default class ApplicationSerializer extends JSONAPISerializer {
   normalizeArrayResponse(store, primaryModelClass, payload, id, requestType) {
     let normalizedDocument = super.normalizeArrayResponse(...arguments);

     // Customize document meta
     normalizedDocument.meta = camelCaseKeys(normalizedDocument.meta);

     return normalizedDocument;
   }

   extractRelationship(relationshipHash) {
     let normalizedRelationship = super.extractRelationship(...arguments);

     // Customize relationship meta
     normalizedRelationship.meta = camelCaseKeys(normalizedRelationship.meta);

     return normalizedRelationship;
   }
 }

@mainName @ember-data/serializer/json-api @tag main