How to populate Symfony entities with JSON response coming from remote API - php

Question

I want to develop an application that will use data coming from remote API calls. I'd like the data to be saved in a local database so that I do not use up the API's quotes and for easier subsequent retrieval.
I've already set up entity mappings. However, I'm not sure how I should approach the task of mapping the data coming from remote calls (I'm planning on using Guzzle HTTP client) on the entities and saving them in the database.
With input coming from users, I'd set up Type classes and use Symfony's Form Component.
In this case, however, my application will be sending HTTP requests and receiving data that should be mapped and saved.
Should I perhaps first collect the data I need in DataFixtures, and then populate my entites from those fixtures?
Another method I thought about was using the FormComponent with the omission of handleRequest.
I will also add that I'd like to be able to easily update my local data with the remote data as the remote will be updated on regular basis.
I guess I need a conceptual hint on how to approach this task.

Answer 1

Using Form component is a viable solution, additional bonus apart from mapping data to entities is validation. So, you could validate if data is correct before persisting your entities. You can use submit method directly:
public function newAction(Request $request)
{
$form = $this->createFormBuilder()
// ...
->getForm();
$form->submit(json_decode($yourData, true));
if ($form->isValid()) {
// perform some action...
return $this->redirectToRoute('task_success');
}
}
Another options is to use serializer's, deserialize method:
$nameConverter = new OrgPrefixNameConverter();
$normalizer = new ObjectNormalizer(null, $nameConverter);
$serializer = new Serializer(array($normalizer), array(new JsonEncoder()));
$obj = new Company();
$obj->name = 'Acme Inc.';
$obj->address = '123 Main Street, Big City';
$json = $serializer->serialize($obj);
// {"org_name": "Acme Inc.", "org_address": "123 Main Street, Big City"}
$objCopy = $serializer->deserialize($json);
// Same data as $obj
Links:
serializer
form handling