How to extract messages string from JSON - ruby

Question

I am attempting to reference the message array contained within this JSON but cant seem to get it.
[
{
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"CustomerID": 171,
"MessageType": 1,
"Subject": "Test Message",
"OpenDate": "2015-09-17T00:00:00",
"Closed": false,
"ClosedDate": null,
"Messages": [
{
"IBMessageID": 1,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "Test Message",
"FromCustomer": true,
"UserID": null,
"Date": "2015-09-17T17:23:00"
},
{
"IBMessageID": 2,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "Test this Update",
"FromCustomer": false,
"UserID": 1,
"Date": "2015-09-17T17:23:00"
},
{
"IBMessageID": 3,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "My New Message",
"FromCustomer": false,
"UserID": 1,
"Date": "2015-09-17T17:23:00"
},
{
"IBMessageID": 4,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "Reply",
"FromCustomer": false,
"UserID": 1,
"Date": "2015-09-17T17:05:00"
},
{
"IBMessageID": 5,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "Some sensible shit",
"FromCustomer": false,
"UserID": 1,
"Date": "2015-09-17T17:23:00"
},
{
"IBMessageID": 14,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "Message 2",
"FromCustomer": true,
"UserID": null,
"Date": "2015-09-21T14:10:00"
},
{
"IBMessageID": 16,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "Message 2",
"FromCustomer": true,
"UserID": null,
"Date": "2015-09-22T16:22:00"
},
{
"IBMessageID": 25,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "Added via abacus\r\n",
"FromCustomer": false,
"UserID": 1,
"Date": "2015-09-22T16:22:00"
},
{
"IBMessageID": 26,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "sdsdsdsd",
"FromCustomer": true,
"UserID": null,
"Date": "2015-09-22T16:40:00"
},
{
"IBMessageID": 27,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "test",
"FromCustomer": true,
"UserID": null,
"Date": "2015-09-22T17:02:00"
},
{
"IBMessageID": 28,
"MessageThreadID": 1,
"MessageText": "test",
"FromCustomer": true,
"UserID": null,
"Date": "2015-09-22T17:06:00"
}
]
}
]
The furthest I have gotten is:
#cleanmessages = JSON.parse([#messages].to_json).first
This returns:
[
{
"IBMessageID" =>1,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"Test Message",
"FromCustomer" =>true,
"UserID" =>nil,
"Date" =>"2015-09-17T17:23:00 "},
{
"IBMessageID"=>2,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"Test this Update",
"FromCustomer" =>false,
"UserID" =>1,
"Date" =>"2015-09-17T17:23:00 "},
{
"IBMessageID"=>3,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"My New Message",
"FromCustomer" =>false,
"UserID" =>1,
"Date" =>"2015-09-17T17:23:00 "},
{
"IBMessageID"=>4,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"Reply",
"FromCustomer" =>false,
"UserID" =>1,
"Date" =>"2015-09-17T17:05:00 "},
{
"IBMessageID"=>5,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"Some sensible shit",
"FromCustomer" =>false,
"UserID" =>1,
"Date" =>"2015-09-17T17:23:00 "},
{
"IBMessageID"=>14,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"Message 2",
"FromCustomer" =>true,
"UserID" =>nil,
"Date" =>"2015-09-21T14:10:00 "},
{
"IBMessageID"=>16,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"Message 2",
"FromCustomer" =>true,
"UserID" =>nil,
"Date" =>"2015-09-22T16:22:00 "},
{
"IBMessageID"=>25,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"Added via abacus\r\n",
"FromCustomer" =>false,
"UserID" =>1,
"Date" =>"2015-09-22T16:22:00 "},
{
"IBMessageID"=>26,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"sdsdsdsd",
"FromCustomer" =>true,
"UserID" =>nil,
"Date" =>"2015-09-22T16:40:00 "},
{
"IBMessageID"=>27,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"test",
"FromCustomer" =>true,
"UserID" =>nil,
"Date" =>"2015-09-22T17:02:00 "},
{
"IBMessageID"=>28,
"MessageThreadID" =>1,
"MessageText" =>"test",
"FromCustomer" =>true,
"UserID" =>nil,
"Date" =>"2015-09-22T17:06:00
}
]
How do i reference each element within each array. I want to in the end be able to display each element sepearately for each thread.

Answer 1

This will give you a hash with the message grouped by the MessageThreadID
#cleanmessages.group_by{ |msg_hash| msg_hash['MessageThreadID']}

Answer 2

Not clear what output you actually want.
document = JSON.parse([#messages].to_json)
document.each do |thread|
# gives you all text messages within the current thread: "Test Message", "Test this Update", ...
messages = thread['Messages'].map {|m| m['MessageText']}
# iterates over all messages in the current thread
thread['Messages'].each {|m| puts "Message #{m['IBMessageID']} from thread #{thread['MessageThreadID']}"}
end
In general JSON.parse doesn't return something special. It returns either Array for corresponding JSON array or Hash for corresponding JSON object.