This issue was not properly explored. The real issue lies within render :json
.
The first code paste in the original question will yield the expected result. However, there is still a caveat. See this example:
render :json => current_user
is NOT the same as
render :json => current_user.to_json
That is, render :json
will not automatically call the to_json
method associated with the User object. In fact, if to_json
is being overridden on the User
model, render :json => @user
will generate the ArgumentError
described below.
# works if User#to_json is not overridden
render :json => current_user
# If User#to_json is overridden, User requires explicit call
render :json => current_user.to_json
This all seems silly to me. This seems to be telling me that render
is not actually calling Model#to_json
when type :json
is specified. Can someone explain what's really going on here?
Any genii that can help me with this can likely answer my other question: How to build a JSON response by combining @foo.to_json(options) and @bars.to_json(options) in Rails
I've seen some other examples on SO, but I none do what I'm looking for.
I'm trying:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
# this actually works! (see update summary above)
def to_json
super(:only => :username, :methods => [:foo, :bar])
end
end
I'm getting ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (1 for 0)
in
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/json/encoders/object.rb:4:in `to_json
Any ideas?
You are getting ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (1 for 0)
because to_json
needs to be overridden with one parameter, the options
hash.
def to_json(options)
...
end
Longer explanation of to_json
, as_json
, and rendering:
In ActiveSupport 2.3.3, as_json
was added to address issues like the one you have encountered. The creation of the json should be separate from the rendering of the json.
Now, anytime to_json
is called on an object, as_json
is invoked to create the data structure, and then that hash is encoded as a JSON string using ActiveSupport::json.encode
. This happens for all types: object, numeric, date, string, etc (see the ActiveSupport code).
ActiveRecord objects behave the same way. There is a default as_json
implementation that creates a hash that includes all the model's attributes. You should override as_json
in your Model to create the JSON structure you want. as_json
, just like the old to_json
, takes an option hash where you can specify attributes and methods to include declaratively.
def as_json(options)
# this example ignores the user's options
super(:only => [:email, :handle])
end
In your controller, render :json => o
can accept a string or an object. If it's a string, it's passed through as the response body, if it's an object, to_json
is called, which triggers as_json
as explained above.
So, as long as your models are properly represented with as_json
overrides (or not), your controller code to display one model should look like this:
format.json { render :json => @user }
The moral of the story is: Avoid calling to_json
directly, allow render
to do that for you. If you need to tweak the JSON output, call as_json
.
format.json { render :json =>
@user.as_json(:only => [:username], :methods => [:avatar]) }