How to Include Associations in #as_json

[Ari King]

Hi,

Does anyone know how to include nested associations when overriding a
model's #as_json method?

Below is my attempt to include direct and nested associations.

NOTE: "office" is a direct association, "company" is nested association
via "office". I'd like both included in the generated json output.



def as_json(options={})
super(:include => [{:office => {:only => [:company, :street, :city,
:state, :zip_code]}}])
end


Thanks.

-Ari

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[gsw]

to_json and as_json are not what you are probably looking for.

If you are using a decently up-to-date version of Rails, look at:

https://github.com/josevalim/active_model_serializers

That is what is going to be used in Rails 4.

If you want Hypermedia (links to resources, etc.), HAL support, etc. to be more REST-driven, check out roar-rails, but note that adoption is not that heavy yet: https://github.com/apotonick/roar-rails

Prior to those, a good option was RABL, and it is still a good option for some probably, although I'm not sure what it can do that you'd want over active_model_serializers: https://github.com/nesquena/rabl

I spent a good amount of time wrangling with as_json and overriding it on ActiveModel::Base like:
https://github.com/garysweaver/restful_json/blob/a20e835133cacdad4bfc4de8dda9e5e0b895b1bb/lib/restful_json/model.rb

And to answer your question- methods is a good way of including associations and whatever else you want to define that can be calculated on the model. But, please don't use as_json unless you really need to.

Note: Mass assignment security (attr_accessible/attr_protected) is going away in Rails 4. Also, there is a lot wrong with the implementation that I'd developed that I'm trying to fix now.

Good luck.