Hi there,

I was looking to introduce hooks/events into JSON API - my immediate use case is to add them for when entities are about to be responded with in a GET (i.e. equivalent to the Drupal entity 'view' hooks before the theming engine kicks in) but could also extend to the other verbs as well. I was wondering if the maintainers could comment on the following before I go ahead:

  • Is there any reason why adding hooks/events to JSON API would not be merged into the project? i.e. was it a deliberate decision not to have them?
  • Is there a preference for legacy style hooks vs Events? I personally find the Event Subscriber model superior and would go that way, but wouldn't do so if using legacy hooks are a deal breaker to see the patch merged.
  • I wonder if it would be better to, rather than add JSON API specific hooks/events, refactor so the aforementioned Drupal entity 'view' hooks are fired? I have no idea if that's feasible or even sensible but it could be argued rendering to JSON is not fundamentally different than HTML and perhaps JSON API should work in a way that Drupal view hooks naturally fire before responses?

Thanks.

Comments

ndavison created an issue. See original summary.

wim leers’s picture

wim leers
Location Ghent 🇧🇪🇪🇺
commented
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

It's not yet clear to me what the use case is.

I have two high-level remarks:

  1. This would add significant complexity and increase the API surface. In other words: it'd make this module harder and more expensive to maintain/support.
  2. Why can't you do this with a KernelEvents::RESPONSE subscriber?
e0ipso’s picture

e0ipso
Primary language Catalan
Location Can Picafort
commented

I would use the response event as well for that.

ndavison’s picture

ndavison commented

So the idea would be similar to hook_ENTITY_view - acting on entities before they are sent to the "rendering" engine. In the case of JSON API, probably as late as possible before the JSON encoding happens. Currently I can't see a way to hook into when an entity is about to be rendered by JSON API (entity load is a bit too wide a net).

This may be possible using KernelEvents::RESPONSE, but I suspect getting the entities being rendered from there will lead to repeating JSON API's route -> entities logic. I'd be very happy though if this is not the case.

It's easy for me to say as a non maintainer of the module, but would adding a few events passing in entities before encoding be a significant support burden going forward? I can't imagine the API changing much (provided EntityInterface is here to stay in D8).

e0ipso’s picture

e0ipso
Primary language Catalan
Location Can Picafort
commented

Remember that the module does not render anything. The closest to hook_ENTITY_view is to add your own entity normalizer with a higher priority and extend from the one provided in the module.

ndavison’s picture

ndavison commented

Thanks for that suggestion I hadn't considered taking an approach like that. It will probably be very close to what I need to achieve.

wim leers’s picture

wim leers
Location Ghent 🇧🇪🇪🇺
commented
Title: Add hooks/events before responses » Add hooks/events before JSON API responses
Category: Feature request » Support request
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Fixed
Issue tags: +API-First Initiative

Indeed.

Also don't forget about https://www.drupal.org/project/jsonapi_extras, which provides a UI for commonly desired customizations!

wim leers’s picture

wim leers
Location Ghent 🇧🇪🇪🇺
commented
Category: Support request » Feature request
Status: Fixed » Closed (works as designed)