Transform JSON to an appropriate format for RESTAdapter EmberJS

Question

I receive a JSON from our API that has the following format

[
  {
    \"id\": 45,
    \"name\": \"Pasta\",
    \"_order\": 0,
    \"is_hidden\": null,
    \         


        

Answer 1

In general, you'll probably want to implement a couple of methods in your serializer if you have to tweak your JSON:

App.ApplicationSerializer = DS.RESTSerializer.extend({
    normalize: function(type, hash, prop) {
        // change your incoming JSON to ember-style here
    },
    serialize: function(record, options) {
        // change your outgoing ember-data record to your server's JSON here
    }
});

EDIT: You may also in your case need to override extractArray as well: http://emberjs.com/api/data/classes/DS.RESTSerializer.html#method_extractArray

Answer 2

Just nest the object represented by your JSON string inside a new object which adds the new property needed and then convert back to JSON. Like this:

var yourInitialJSONString; // your JSON from API 
var obj = JSON.parse(yourInitialJSONString);
var newObj = {
    category: obj
};
var finalJSON = JSON.stringify(newObj);

Alternatively, though probably only best for simple case and not as universally useful as working with actual objects, you could simply concatenate to your JSON:

var yourInitialJSONString; // your JSON from API
var finalJSON = '{"category":' + yourInitialJSONString + '}';

These might prove faster for simple use cases as you avoid deserialization and serialization. I just don't like it as much as I would rather work with actual objects represented by the data. If you need to do a more complex transformation it would probably prove to be more understandable in real word terms than doing a bunch of string concatenation/manipulation.

Answer 3

I ran into this issue earlier today. A nice clean way to fix it is to define a normalizePayload method for your ApplicationSerializer. It's made to be overwritten, so you aren't affecting anything else.

E.g.

App.ApplicationSerializer = DS.RESTSerializer.extend({
    normalizePayload: function(type, payload) {
        return { category: payload };
    }
}

If you want to do this on only some of the payloads processed then you just add a conditional inside it.

App.ApplicationSerializer = DS.RESTSerializer.extend({
    normalizePayload: function(type, payload) {
        if (type.toString() === 'App.Category') {
            return { category: payload };
        }
    }
}

For more info on the normalizePayload method see http://emberjs.com/api/data/classes/DS.RESTSerializer.html#method_normalizePayload

Answer 4

Neither normalizePayload nor normalize is working for me. What I am doing is:

// app/serializers/application.js
import DS from 'ember-data';

export default DS.RESTSerializer.extend({
    extractArray: function(store, type, payload) {
        var payloadTemp = {}
        payloadTemp[type.typeKey] = payload;
        return this._super(store, type, payloadTemp);
    },
    extractSingle: function(store, type, payload, id) {
        var payloadTemp = {}
        payloadTemp[type.typeKey] = [payload];
        return this._super(store, type, payloadTemp, id);
    }
});