Symfony Serializing Entities with children to XML - php

Question

I'm trying to serialize an entity with children to an XML file using the buildin serializer from Symfony. The problem is that the serializer doesn't
format the collection of children in the xml the way I expected.
I initiate the serializer as follows:
$normalizer = new ObjectNormalizer();
$normalizer->setCircularReferenceHandler(function ($object) {
return $object->getId();
});
$this->serializer = new Serializer(
[
$normalizer,
new GetSetMethodNormalizer(),
new ArrayDenormalizer()
],
[new XmlEncoder(), new JsonEncoder()]
);
And call the serializer like this:
$this->serializer->serialize(
$entityCollection,
'xml',
[
'xml_format_output' => true,
'xml_root_node_name' => 'events'
]
);
Which results in the following XML:
<item key="140">
<id/>
<name>Lorum ipsum</name>
<lastEdited/>
<url>Lorum ipsum</url>
<region>Limburg</region>
<description>Lorum ipsum</description>
<location/>
<contact/>
<content><![CDATA[<p>Lorum ipsum</p>]]></content>
<priceChild/>
<priceAdult/>
<startTime>15:00:00</startTime>
<endTime>15:45:00</endTime>
<eventDates/>
<eventImages>
<id/>
<url>herfstvoorstelling.jpg</url>
</eventImages>
<eventImages>
<id/>
<url>test.jpg</url>
</eventImages>
</item>
As you can see the <eventImages> node are represented twice where I expected it to have the following structure:
<eventImages>
<eventImage>
<id/>
<url>herfstvoorstelling.jpg</url>
</eventImage>
<eventImage>
<id/>
<url>test.jpg</url>
</eventImage>
</eventImages>
The entities used:
<?php
namespace App\Entity;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection;
/**
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="App\Repository\EventRepository")
*/
class Event
{
/**
* #ORM\Id()
* #ORM\GeneratedValue()
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $name;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $lastEdited;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $url;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $region;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $description;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $location;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $contact;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $content;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $priceChild;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $priceAdult;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $startTime;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
private $endTime;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="App\Entity\EventDate", mappedBy="event")
*/
private $eventDates;
/**
* #MaxDepth(2)
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="App\Entity\EventImage", mappedBy="event")
*/
private $eventImages;
public function __construct()
{
$this->eventDates = new ArrayCollection();
$this->eventImages = new ArrayCollection();
}
public function getId(): ?int
{
return $this->id;
}
public function getName(): ?string
{
return $this->name;
}
public function setName(string $name): self
{
$this->name = $name;
return $this;
}
public function getLastEdited(): ?string
{
return $this->lastEdited;
}
public function setLastEdited(string $lastEdited): self
{
$this->lastEdited = $lastEdited;
return $this;
}
public function getUrl(): ?string
{
return $this->url;
}
public function setUrl(string $url): self
{
$this->url = $url;
return $this;
}
public function getRegion(): ?string
{
return $this->region;
}
public function setRegion(string $region): self
{
$this->region = $region;
return $this;
}
public function getDescription(): ?string
{
return $this->description;
}
public function setDescription(string $description): self
{
$this->description = $description;
return $this;
}
public function getLocation(): ?string
{
return $this->location;
}
public function setLocation(string $location): self
{
$this->location = $location;
return $this;
}
public function getContact(): ?string
{
return $this->contact;
}
public function setContact(string $contact): self
{
$this->contact = $contact;
return $this;
}
public function getContent(): ?string
{
return $this->content;
}
public function setContent(string $content): self
{
$this->content = $content;
return $this;
}
public function getPriceChild(): ?string
{
return $this->priceChild;
}
public function setPriceChild(string $priceChild): self
{
$this->priceChild = $priceChild;
return $this;
}
public function getPriceAdult(): ?string
{
return $this->priceAdult;
}
public function setPriceAdult(string $priceAdult): self
{
$this->priceAdult = $priceAdult;
return $this;
}
public function getStartTime(): ?string
{
return $this->startTime;
}
public function setStartTime(string $startTime): self
{
$this->startTime = $startTime;
return $this;
}
public function getEndTime(): ?string
{
return $this->endTime;
}
public function setEndTime(string $endTime): self
{
$this->endTime = $endTime;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return Collection|EventDate[]
*/
public function getEventDates(): Collection
{
return $this->eventDates;
}
public function addEventDate(EventDate $eventDate): self
{
if (!$this->eventDates->contains($eventDate)) {
$this->eventDates[] = $eventDate;
$eventDate->setEvent($this);
}
return $this;
}
public function removeEventDate(EventDate $eventDate): self
{
if ($this->eventDates->contains($eventDate)) {
$this->eventDates->removeElement($eventDate);
// set the owning side to null (unless already changed)
if ($eventDate->getEvent() === $this) {
$eventDate->setEvent(null);
}
}
return $this;
}
/**
* #return Collection|EventImage[]
*/
public function getEventImages(): Collection
{
return $this->eventImages;
}
public function addEventImage(EventImage $eventImage): self
{
if (!$this->eventImages->contains($eventImage)) {
$this->eventImages[] = $eventImage;
$eventImage->setEvent($this);
}
return $this;
}
public function removeEventImage(EventImage $eventImage): self
{
if ($this->eventImages->contains($eventImage)) {
$this->eventImages->removeElement($eventImage);
// set the owning side to null (unless already changed)
if ($eventImage->getEvent() === $this) {
$eventImage->setEvent(null);
}
}
return $this;
}
}
<?php
namespace App\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="App\Repository\EventImageRepository")
*/
class EventImage
{
/**
* #ORM\Id()
* #ORM\GeneratedValue()
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255, nullable=true)
*/
private $url;
/**
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="App\Entity\Event", inversedBy="eventImages")
*/
private $event;
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
public function getUrl(): ?string
{
return $this->url;
}
public function setUrl(?string $url): self
{
$this->url = $url;
return $this;
}
public function getEvent(): ?Event
{
return $this->event;
}
public function setEvent(?Event $event): self
{
$this->event = $event;
return $this;
}
}
I can't find out what I'm missing or if it is possible to achieve this with the default serializer from Symfony.