This plugin implements neomerx/json-api as a View class for cakephp3.

JSON API is a specification for how a client should request that resources be fetched or modified, and how a server should respond to those requests.

JSON API is designed to minimize both the number of requests and the amount of data transmitted between clients and servers. This efficiency is achieved without compromising readability, flexibility, or discoverability.

JSON API requires use of the JSON API media type (application/vnd.api+json) for exchanging data.

You can install this plugin into your CakePHP application using composer.

The recommended way to install composer packages is:

composer require phantomwatson/cakephp-json-api:dev-master

This plugin works by using neomerx/json-api php module at its core, my advice is to read up on the docs before proceeding.

Load the plugin by adding it to your bootstrap.php

Plugin::load('JsonApi');

or activate it using the cake shell

$ bin/cake plugin load JsonApi

Then tell your controller to use the JsonApi view

$this->viewBuilder()->className('JsonApi.JsonApi');

The following view variables can be assigned in your controller

public function initialize()
{
	$this->viewBuilder()->className('JsonApi.JsonApi');

	$this->set('_entities', [
		'Article',
		'Author'
	]);

	$this->set('_url', Router::url('/api', true));
	$this->set('_meta', ['some' => 'global metadata']);
	$this->set('_links', [ // uses Neomerx\JsonApi\Schema\Link
		Link::FIRST => new Link('/authors?page=1'),
		Link::LAST => new Link('/authors?page=9', [
			'meta' => 'data'
		])
	]);
}

public function index()
{
	$articles = $this->Articles->find()
		->all();

	$this->set(compact('articles'));
	$this->set('_serialize', true);

	// optional parameters
	$this->set('_include', [ 'articles', 'articles.comments' ]);
	$this->set('_fieldsets', [ 'articles' => [ 'title' ] ]);
}

Entities assigned in _entities are mapped to the EntitySchema base class. This class extends Neomerx\JsonApi\Schema\SchemaProvider.

It is recommended that you create a schema class for each entity you defined by extending the EntitySchema class. Example: if you have an entity in Model\Entity\Author then create a schema class in View\Schema\AuthorSchema

Think of the Schema class as a template that represents an Entity.

Because of this it is possible access the current view object along with Request and helpers. $this->getView() can be called inside the schema if you need it.

Example App\View\Schema\AuthorSchema.php (maps to App\Model\Entity\Author)

<?php
namespace TestApp\View\Schema;

use JsonApi\View\Schema\EntitySchema;

class AuthorSchema extends EntitySchema
{
    public function getId($entity)
    {
        return $entity->get('id');
    }

    public function getAttributes($entity)
    {
        return [
            'title' => $entity->title,
            'body' => $entity->body,
            'published' => $entity->published,
            'helper_link' => $this->Url->build(['action' => 'view']) // view helper
        ];
    }

    public function getRelationships($entity, array $includeRelationships = [])
    {
        return [
            'articles' => [
                self::DATA => $entity->articles
            ]
        ];
    }
}

This plugin does not handle this for you but can be easily added to your application using cake's RequestHandler component which has support for the json-api Content-Type.

For instance, if you want to automatically decode incoming json-api (application/vnd.api+json) data you can tell RequestHandler to automaticaly handle it.

$this->RequestHandler->config('inputTypeMap.jsonapi', ['json_decode', true]);

RESTfull routing can also be achieved by creating resource routes.

Router::scope('/api', function($routes) {
	$routes->resources('Articles', function($routes) {
		$routes->resources('Authors');
	});
});