Let's say you're implementing a REST API in Rails. When serving a collection, you might want to only include a few attributes:
/people
But when serving a single resource, you want to include all the attributes:
/people/1
I don't see how to do that using ActiveModel::Serializers, since the examples all use the pattern of defining one serializer per model (with a standard naming convention) and having AMS automatically use the right one in the controller when you do:
render json: @people
or:
render json: @person
You can have multiple serializers for the same model, e.g.
class SimplePersonSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
attributes :id, :name
end
and
class CompletePersonSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
attributes :id, :name, :phone, :email
end
simple info for people in one controller:
render json: @people, each_serializer: SimplePersonSerializer
complete info for people in another:
render json: @people, each_serializer: CompletePersonSerializer
simple info for a single person:
render json: @person, serializer: SimplePersonSerializer
complete info for a single person:
render json: @person, serializer: CompletePersonSerializer