Introduction
What is Fractal?
Fractal provides a presentation and transformation layer for complex data output, the like found in RESTful APIs, and works really well with JSON. Think of this as a view layer for your JSON/YAML/etc.
When building an API it is common for people to just grab stuff from the database and pass it
to json_encode(). This might be passable for “trivial” APIs but if they are in use by the public,
or used by mobile applications then this will quickly lead to inconsistent output.
Goals
- Create a “barrier” between source data and output, so schema changes do not affect users
- Systematic type-casting of data, to avoid
foreach()ing through and(bool)ing everything - Include (a.k.a embedding, nesting or side-loading) relationships for complex data structures
- Work with standards like HAL and JSON-API but also allow custom serialization
- Support the pagination of data results, for small and large data sets alike
- Generally ease the subtle complexities of outputting data in a non-trivial API
Questions?
Fractal was created by Phil Sturgeon. Find him on Twitter at @philsturgeon. Fractal is maintained by Graham Daniels and Jason Lewis. They can be found on Twitter at @greydnls and @jasonclewis.