Dingo API remove "data" envelope - laravel

Question

is it there an easy way to remove the "data" envelope from the Dingo API response.
When I use this Transformer to transform user models:
class UserTransformer extends EloquentModelTransformer
{
/**
* List of resources possible to include
*
* #var array
*/
protected $availableIncludes = [
'roles'
];
protected $defaultIncludes = [
'roles'
];
public function transform($model)
{
if(! $model instanceof User)
throw new InvalidArgumentException($model);
return [
'id' => $model->id,
'name' => $model->name,
'email' => $model->email
];
}
/**
* Include Roles
*
* #param User $user
* #return \League\Fractal\Resource\Item
*/
public function includeRoles(User $user)
{
$roles = $user->roles;
return $this->collection($roles, new RoleTransformer());
}
I get this response:
{
data : [
"id": 102,
"name": "Simo",
"email": "mail#outlook.com",
"roles": {
"data": [
{
"id": 1
"name": "admin"
}
]
}
}
]
}
I read some articles about RESTful APIs and a lot of them stated that such enveloped responses arent very modern (You should use the HTTP Header instead).
How can I disable this behaviour at least for the includes?
Thank you

Answer 1

For those who fall on this later and as I had really hard time to make it, I'd like to share how I made it working in my API :
1) Create a Custom Serializer, NoDataArraySerializer.php :
namespace App\Api\V1\Serializers;
use League\Fractal\Serializer\ArraySerializer;
class NoDataArraySerializer extends ArraySerializer
{
/**
* Serialize a collection.
*/
public function collection($resourceKey, array $data)
{
return ($resourceKey) ? [ $resourceKey => $data ] : $data;
}
/**
* Serialize an item.
*/
public function item($resourceKey, array $data)
{
return ($resourceKey) ? [ $resourceKey => $data ] : $data;
}
}
2) Set new the Serializer. In bootstrap/app.php, add :
$app['Dingo\Api\Transformer\Factory']->setAdapter(function ($app) {
$fractal = new League\Fractal\Manager;
$fractal->setSerializer(new App\Api\V1\Serializers\NoDataArraySerializer);
return new Dingo\Api\Transformer\Adapter\Fractal($fractal);
});
That's it.
Now, in your UserController (for instance), you can use it like this :
namespace App\Api\V1\Controllers;
use App\Api\V1\Models\User;
use App\Api\V1\Transformers\UserTransformer;
class UserController extends Controller
{
public function index()
{
$items = User::all();
return $this->response->collection($items, new UserTransformer());
}
}
And the response will look like :
[
{
"user_id": 1,
...
},
{
"user_id": 2,
...
}
]
Or, I you want to add an enveloppe, you just need to set the resource key in the Controller. Replace :
return $this->response->collection($items, new UserTransformer());
by
return $this->response->collection($items, new UserTransformer(), ['key' => 'users']);
And the response will look like :
{
"users": [
{
"user_id": 1,
...
},
{
"user_id": 2,
...
}
]
}

Answer 2

One addition to the solution of YouHieng. The preferred way to register the NoDataArraySerializer in Laravel 5.3 and above is to write a custom ServiceProvider and add the logic into the boot() method and not the bootstrap/app.php file.
For Example:
php artisan make:provider DingoSerializerProvider
Then:
public function boot(){
$this->app['Dingo\Api\Transformer\Factory']->setAdapter(function ($app) {
$fractal = new League\Fractal\Manager;
$fractal->setSerializer(new App\Http\Serializers\NoDataArraySerializer());
return new Dingo\Api\Transformer\Adapter\Fractal($fractal);
});
}

Answer 3

Have a look to http://fractal.thephpleague.com/serializers/#arrayserializer. They explain exactly what to do when
Sometimes people want to remove that 'data' namespace for items