[[serializers]]
== Serializers

The client has three serializers available.  You will most likely never need
to change the serializer, unless you have special requirements or are
implementing a new protocol.

The job of the serializer is to encode the outgoing request body and decode
the incoming response body.  In 99% of cases, this is a simple conversion
to/from JSON.

The default serializer is the `SmartSerializer`

=== SmartSerializer
==== Serialize()
The `SmartSerializer` inspects the data to be encoded.  If the request body
is provided as a string, it is passed directly to Elasticsearch as a string.
This allows users to provide raw JSON, or raw strings for certain endpoints that
dont have structure (such as the Analyze endpoint).

If the data is an array, it is converted to json.  If the data provided was an
empty array, the serializer manually converts the JSON from an empty array (`[]`)
to an empty object (`{}`) so that it is valid JSON for Elasticsearch request
bodies.

==== Deserialize()
When decoding the response body, the `SmartSerializer` introspects the
`content_type` headers to determine the appropriate encoding.  If the data is
encoded as JSON, it is decoded into an array using `json_decode`.  Otherwise,
it is returned as a string.

This functionality is required to cooperate with endpoints such as the `Cat`
endpoints, which return tabular text instead of JSON.

==== Selecting the SmartSerializer

The SmartSerializer is selected by default, but if you wish to manually configure it for explicitness, you can
do so by using the `setSerializer()` method on the ClientBuilder object:

[source,php]
----
$client = ClientBuilder::create()
            ->setSerializer('\Elasticsearch\Serializers\SmartSerializer');
            ->build();
----

Note that the serializer is configured by specifying a namespace path to the serializer.

=== ArrayToJSONSerializer
==== Serialize()
The `ArrayToJSONSerializer` inspects the data to be encoded.  If the request body
is provided as a string, it is passed directly to Elasticsearch as a string.
This allows users to provide raw JSON, or raw strings for certain endpoints that
dont have structure (such as the Analyze endpoint).

If the data is an array, it is converted to json.  If the data provided was an
empty array, the serializer manually converts the JSON from an empty array (`[]`)
to an empty object (`{}`) so that it is valid JSON for Elasticsearch request
bodies.

==== Deserialize()
When decoding the response body, everything is decoded to JSON from JSON.  If
the data is not valid JSON, `null` will be returned.

==== Selecting the ArrayToJSONSerializer

You can select  `ArrayToJSONSerializer` by using the `setSerializer()` method on the ClientBuilder object:

[source,php]
----
$client = ClientBuilder::create()
            ->setSerializer('\Elasticsearch\Serializers\ArrayToJSONSerializer');
            ->build();
----

Note that the serializer is configured by specifying a namespace path to the serializer.

=== EverythingToJSONSerializer
==== Serialize()
The `EverythingToJSONSerializer` tries to convert everything to JSON.

If the data provided was an empty array, the serializer manually converts the
JSON from an empty array (`[]`) to an empty object (`{}`) so that it is valid
JSON for Elasticsearch request bodies.

If the data was not an array and/or not convertible to JSON, the method returns
`null`.

==== Deserialize()
When decoding the response body, everything is decoded to JSON from JSON.  If
the data is not valid JSON, `null` will be returned.

==== Selecting the EverythingToJSONSerializer

You can select  `EverythingToJSONSerializer` by using the `setSerializer()` method on the ClientBuilder object:

[source,php]
----
$client = ClientBuilder::create()
            ->setSerializer('\Elasticsearch\Serializers\EverythingToJSONSerializer');
            ->build();
----

Note that the serializer is configured by specifying a namespace path to the serializer.

=== Implementing your own Serializer
If you want to use your own custom serializer, you need to implement the `SerializerInterface` interface.  Please
keep in mind that the client uses a single Serializer object for all endpoints and all connections.


[source,php]
----
class MyCustomSerializer implements SerializerInterface
{

    /**
     * Serialize request body
     *
     * @param string|array $data Request body
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function serialize($data)
    {
        // code here
    }

    /**
     * Deserialize response body
     *
     * @param string $data Response body
     * @param array  $headers Response Headers
     *
     * @return array|string
     */
    public function deserialize($data, $headers)
    {
        // code here
    }
}
----
{zwsp} +

To then use your custom serializer, you can specify the namespace path in the `setSerializer()` method of the ClientBuilder
object:

[source,php]
----
$client = ClientBuilder::create()
            ->setSerializer('\MyProject\Serializers\MyCustomSerializer');
            ->build();
----

Alternatively, if your serializer has a constructor or further initialization that should occur before given to the
client, you can instantiate an object and provide that instead:

[source,php]
----
$mySerializer = new MyCustomSerializer($a, $b, $c);
$mySerializer->setFoo("bar");

$client = ClientBuilder::create()
            ->setSerializer($mySerializer);
            ->build();
----


