Union types deserialisation

[scyzoryck]

Q	A
Bug fix?	no
New feature?	yes
Doc updated	no
BC breaks?	no
Deprecations?	no
Tests pass?	yes
Fixed tickets	#1502
License	MIT

Lets add initial support for Union types from JSON. Limitations:

• only for simple types for now
• only from JSON

[idbentley]

@scyzoryck I am using serializer pretty intensively for some SDK tasks, but I need union support to move forward.

I'm very happy to contribute some development effort to get this in place.

What can I do to help this PR get back on track?

Would you be open to me extending this functionality to more complex types?

Thanks,
Ian

[scyzoryck]

@goetas - could you take a look at it, please? :) If you agree with taking such approach for the union types, I will fix the phpstan issues.

@idbentley Thanks for bringing back this MR :) For no needed, I will try to make it work after approval for the approach from Goetas :)

[idbentley]

@scyzoryck

I think adding these assertions would improve the tests as well:

diff --git a/tests/Serializer/BaseSerializationTestCase.php b/tests/Serializer/BaseSerializationTestCase.php
index 9ce0d5cd..8ddcd324 100644
--- a/tests/Serializer/BaseSerializationTestCase.php
+++ b/tests/Serializer/BaseSerializationTestCase.php
@@ -2009,6 +2009,9 @@ abstract class BaseSerializationTestCase extends TestCase
 
         $object = new UnionTypedDocBLockProperty(10000);
         self::assertEquals($object, $this->deserialize(static::getContent('data_integer'), UnionTypedDocBLockProperty::class));
+
+        $object = new UnionTypedDocBlockProperty('foo');
+        self::assertEquals($object, $this->deserialize(static::getContent('data_string'), UnionTypedDocBLockProperty::class));
     }
 
     public function testIterable(): void
diff --git a/tests/Serializer/JsonSerializationTest.php b/tests/Serializer/JsonSerializationTest.php
index 12cebabd..cbca7b5a 100644
--- a/tests/Serializer/JsonSerializationTest.php
+++ b/tests/Serializer/JsonSerializationTest.php
@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ class JsonSerializationTest extends BaseSerializationTestCase
             $outputs['uninitialized_typed_props'] = '{"virtual_role":{},"id":1,"role":{},"tags":[]}';
             $outputs['custom_datetimeinterface'] = '{"custom":"2021-09-07"}';
             $outputs['data_integer'] = '{"data":10000}';
+            $outputs['data_string'] = '{"data":"foo"}';
             $outputs['uid'] = '"66b3177c-e03b-4a22-9dee-ddd7d37a04d5"';
             $outputs['object_with_enums'] = '{"ordinary":"Clubs","backed":"C","ordinary_array":["Clubs","Spades"],"backed_array":["C","H"],"ordinary_auto_detect":"Clubs","backed_auto_detect":"C","backed_int_auto_detect":3,"backed_int":3,"backed_name":"C","backed_int_forced_str":3}';
             $outputs['object_with_autodetect_enums'] = '{"ordinary_array_auto_detect":["Clubs","Spades"],"backed_array_auto_detect":["C","H"],"mixed_array_auto_detect":["Clubs","H"]}';
@@ -446,6 +447,8 @@ class JsonSerializationTest extends BaseSerializationTestCase
 
         $object = new UnionTypedProperties(10000);
         self::assertEquals($object, $this->deserialize(static::getContent('data_integer'), UnionTypedProperties::class));
+        $object = new UnionTypedProperties('foo');
+        self::assertEquals($object, $this->deserialize(static::getContent('data_string'), UnionTypedProperties::class));
     }

[goetas]

shouldn't here be a better message?

or be a map (static property in the class) with alternative names for types?

static $aliases = [
 'boolean' => 'bool',
 'integer' => 'int',
 //...
];

[goetas]

can this be shortened as in

serializer/src/Handler/ArrayCollectionHandler.php

Line 51 in 4478166

public static function getSubscribingMethods()

?

[goetas]

i guess this works for json only... in XML all the data are always strings... so I do not see the point of this handler for xml

[goetas]

this seems doing the test with primitives... what about union of objects? is that supported?

[idbentley]

Hi @goetas please checkout #1546 where I have addressed your feedback and made some minor improvements.

I'd really like to get this merged, and then also add handling for Unions of Complex types.