"array" type: Not working for arrays of DateTime objects

[lukey78]

I recently tried to use the following annotation that should work as documented:

@JMS\Type("array<DateTime<'Y-m-d'>>")

But it doesn't. The DateTimes are serialized to empty strings.

While investigating the problem I found that line in the visitArray function of (e.g.) the GenericSerializationVisitor:

   $v = $this->navigator->accept($v, isset($type['params'][1]) ? $type['params'][1] : null, $context);

$type['params'][1] normally doesn't exist. The accept function is called with a null type which results in auto detection of the type.

If I change the $type['params'][1] to $type['params'][0] everything seems to work as expected.

Is this a bug or a feature? I could also submit a pull request if this is a bug.

Thanks,
Jens

[schmittjoh]

This seems like a bug. A tested fix would be appreciated.

[schmittjoh]

When you work on a fix, can you make sure that you do not break support for:

array<string,DateTime<'Y-m-d'>>

[lukey78]

I tried running the test suite and got errors, e.g.:

Call to undefined method JMS\Serializer\Tests\Serializer\ContextTest::callback() 

What's wrong?

[stof]

@lukey78 Your PHPUnit version is too old. Use PHPUnit 3.7 (i.e. the current stable version)

[lukey78]

@stof: Thanks!

I tried fixing this issue and stumbled upon the following behaviour where I'm not sure if it's wrong what I'm doing or if the Serializer doesn't handle this correctly.

Given an object with the following annotated property:

    /**
     * @var \DateTime[]
     * @Type("array<string,DateTime>")
     * @XmlKeyValuePairs
     */
    private $exampleArray;

Serialized to XML with some example data I get:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<result>
  <example_array>
    <testdate1><![CDATA[2047-01-01T12:47:47+0100]]></testdate1>
    <testdate2><![CDATA[2013-12-05T00:00:00+0100]]></testdate2>
  </example_array>
</result>

When trying to deserialize this XML back into the object I get an empty array:

object(ExampleObject)#554 (1) {
  ["exampleArray":"ExampleObject":private]=>
  array(0) {
  }
}

Maybe I used the wrong XML annotations?
Serializing and deserializing this from/to the other formats (json/yml) works.

[schmittjoh]

I think XmlKeyValuePairs is a one way street currently. You can remove the deserialization part of this test case.