What is view-bundle?

View Bundle is a plug-in for Symfony, a PHP web framework, that removes repetitive boilerplate when building JSON APIs. The specific problem it solves: every time a controller sends data back to the client, a developer normally has to manually convert internal data objects into the right JSON structure. This bundle automates that conversion. You define the shape of your API response as a typed PHP class, essentially a template describing what the JSON should look like. The bundle then automatically reads matching properties from your actual data objects, maps them into that template, drops any null values, and sends the result as a properly formatted JSON response. Collections of items are handled the same way, using a typed list view that maps each item individually. For performance in production, the bundle pre-computes all the mapping information at build time so it does not have to do the slow reflection-based lookup on every single request. This pre-computation is stored in versioned cache files that update cleanly when you deploy new code. You would reach for this if you are building a REST API in PHP with Symfony and are tired of writing the same JSON serialization plumbing in every controller. It requires PHP 8.5 or later and Symfony 8.0.