CiviCRM Contact,get with group - change in result format

Question

Where (which JIRA issue, if any) did this change in API behaviour come from, and was it documented/expected?

The same Contact,get API call returns different results between 4.6 and 4.7.

IMO the new style is better, but I'm not sure the change was intended/documented. (I want clarification so I can expect the new behaviour to stick!)

I've confirmed this behaviour today by testing on the 4.6 (Joomla) and 4.7 (Drupal) demo sites.

API call for Contact,get with return=group shows groups in the results.

civicrm_api3('Contact', 'get', array(
  'sequential' => 1,
  'return' => "group",
  'id' => 3,
));

In 4.6 the result has groups shown by their group "title" (not name). Since group titles may contain a comma, there is some lack of certainty in the results (leading to workarounds like this).

[
  'is_error' => 0,
  'version' => 3,
  'count' => 1,
  'id' => 3,
  'values' => [
    [
      'contact_id' => '3',
      'groups' => 'Example group,Example smart group',
      'id' => '3',
    ]
  ]
]

In 4.7 the result has groups shown by their group ID, which is a bit more predictable to work with.

[
  'is_error' => 0,
  'version' => 3,
  'count' => 1,
  'id' => 3,
  'values' => [
    [
      'contact_id' => '3',
      'groups' => '4,7',
      'id' => '3',
    ]
  ]
]

I've checked the CiviCRM API Changelog and enquired on chat.civicrm.org without any luck so far. Help me, SE!

Answer 1

This is not an answer to your question, but were I to post it as a comment the whole thing would be on one line/unreadable. It seems to me that the most desirable format is:

[
  'is_error' => 0,
  'version' => 3,
  'count' => 1,
  'id' => 3,
  'values' => [
    [
      'contact_id' => '3',
      'groups' => array(4, 7),
      'id' => '3',
    ]
  ]
]

... or even:

[
  'is_error' => 0,
  'version' => 3,
  'count' => 1,
  'id' => 3,
  'values' => [
    [
      'contact_id' => '3',
      'groups' => array('Example group', 'Example smart group'),
      'group_ids' => array(4, 7),
      'id' => '3',
    ]
  ]
]