@@ -981,6 +981,87 @@ will be thrown. The type enforcement of the properties can be disabled by settin
981981the serializer context option ``ObjectNormalizer::DISABLE_TYPE_ENFORCEMENT ``
982982to ``true ``.
983983
984+ Serializing Interfaces and Abstract Classes
985+ -------------------------------------------
986+
987+ When dealing with objects that are fairly similar or share properties, you may
988+ use interfaces or abstract classes. The Serializer component allows you to
989+ serialize and deserialize these objects using a *"discrimator class mapping" *.
990+
991+ The discriminator is the field (in the serialized string) used to differentiate
992+ between the possible objects. In practice, when using the Serializer component,
993+ pass the:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ Serializer\\ Mapping\\ ClassDiscriminatorResolver `
994+ to the:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ Serializer\\ Normalizer\\ ObjectNormalizer `.
995+
996+ Consider an application that defines an abstract ``CodeRepository `` class
997+ extended by ``GitHubCodeRepository `` and ``BitBucketCodeRepository `` classes.
998+ This example shows how to serialize and deserialize those objects::
999+
1000+ $discriminator = new ClassDiscriminatorResolver();
1001+ $discriminator->addClassMapping(CodeRepository::class, new ClassDiscriminatorMapping('type', [
1002+ 'github' => GitHubCodeRepository::class,
1003+ 'bitbucket' => BitBucketCodeRepository::class,
1004+ ]));
1005+
1006+ $serializer = new Serializer(
1007+ array(new ObjectNormalizer(null, null, null, null, $discriminator)),
1008+ array('json' => new JsonEncoder())
1009+ );
1010+
1011+ $serialized = $serializer->serialize(new GitHubCodeRepository());
1012+ // {"type": "github"}
1013+
1014+ $repository = $serializer->unserialize($serialized, CodeRepository::class, 'json');
1015+ // instanceof GitHubCodeRepository
1016+
1017+ If the class metadata factory is enabled as explained in the
1018+ :ref: `Attributes Groups section <component-serializer-attributes-groups >`, you
1019+ can use this simpler configuration:
1020+
1021+ ..configuration-block ::
1022+
1023+ ..code-block ::php-annotations
1024+
1025+ namespace App;
1026+
1027+ use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\DiscriminatorMap;
1028+
1029+ /**
1030+ * @DiscriminatorMap(typeProperty="type", mapping={
1031+ * "github"="App\GitHubCodeRepository",
1032+ * "bitbucket"="App\BitBucketCodeRepository"
1033+ * })
1034+ */
1035+ interface CodeRepository
1036+ {
1037+ // ...
1038+ }
1039+
1040+ code-block ::yaml
1041+
1042+ App\CodeRepository :
1043+ discriminator_map :
1044+ type_property :type
1045+ mapping :
1046+ github :' App\GitHubCodeRepository'
1047+ bitbucket :' App\BitBucketCodeRepository'
1048+
1049+ code-block ::xml
1050+
1051+ <?xml version =" 1.0"
1052+ <serializer xmlns =" http://symfony.com/schema/dic/serializer-mapping"
1053+ xmlns : xsi =" http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
1054+ xsi : schemaLocation =" http://symfony.com/schema/dic/serializer-mapping
1055+ http://symfony.com/schema/dic/serializer-mapping/serializer-mapping-1.0.xsd"
1056+ >
1057+ <class name =" App\CodeRepository"
1058+ <discriminator-map type-property =" type"
1059+ <mapping type =" github" class =" App\GitHubCodeRepository"
1060+ <mapping type =" bitbucket" class =" App\BitBucketCodeRepository"
1061+ </discriminator-map >
1062+ </class >
1063+ </serializer >
1064+
9841065
9851066----------
9861067