Handlers
========

Introduction
------------
Handlers allow you to change the serialization, or deserialization process
for a single type/format combination.

Handlers are simple callback which receive three arguments: the visitor,
the data, and the type.

Simple Callables
----------------
You can register simple callables on the builder object::

$builder
->configureHandlers(function(JMS\Serializer\Handler\HandlerRegistry $registry) {
$registry->registerHandler('serialization', 'MyObject', 'json',
function($visitor, MyObject $obj, array $type) {
return $obj->getName();
}
);
})
;

Subscribing Handlers
--------------------
Subscribing handlers contain the configuration themselves which makes them easier to share with other users,
and easier to set-up in general::

use JMS\Serializer\Handler\SubscribingHandlerInterface;
use JMS\Serializer\GraphNavigator;
use JMS\Serializer\JsonSerializationVisitor;
use JMS\Serializer\Context;

class MyHandler implements SubscribingHandlerInterface
{
public static function getSubscribingMethods()
{
return array(
array(
'direction' => GraphNavigator::DIRECTION_SERIALIZATION,
'format' => 'json',
'type' => 'DateTime',
'method' => 'serializeDateTimeToJson',
),
);
}

public function serializeDateTimeToJson(JsonSerializationVisitor $visitor, \DateTime $date, array $type, Context $context)
{
return $date->format($type['params'][0]);
}
}

Also, this type of handler is registered via the builder object::

$builder
->configureHandlers(function(JMS\Serializer\Handler\HandlerRegistry $registry) {
$registry->registerSubscribingHandler(new MyHandler());
})
;