Return database results in the same JSON parent and children - ruby

Question

I have Team and Players classes and want to return the data in one JSON string which contains Team info but at the same time it displays all the information about the players.
class Team < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :players
end
class Players < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :team
end
I know how to retrieve the information about team and players but not in the same query. Another problem is I don't how to merge the result JSONs in one JSON.
team = Team.last.to_json
player = team.players.to_json
How can I query the info about Team and Players in the same query. I tried:
#team = Team.includes(:players).where(players: {team_id: Team.last}).last.to_json
and it only returns me information about the team. I want a JSON like:
-id
-name
-players
-player
-player
In case it's impossible, how can I merge into one JSON all the information from the two queries.

Answer 1

You can write a "join" to incorporate the players in the team with the team information. At that point you'll have a structure that has the information needed to create the JSON. See "12 Joining Tables" from the Active Record documentation for more information.
Or, you can make two separate queries, then create a bit more complex JSON hash or array allowing you to output both sets of data into one larger serialized object. For instance:
require 'json'
team = {
'name' => 'bears'
}
players = {
'1' => 'fred',
'2' => 'joe'
}
puts ({
'team' => team,
'players' => players
}).to_json
Here's the output:
{"team":{"name":"bears"},"players":{"1":"fred","2":"joe"}}
Here's the data returned back to the Ruby object:
data = '{"team":{"name":"bears"},"players":{"1":"fred","2":"joe"}}'
JSON[data]
# => {"team"=>{"name"=>"bears"}, "players"=>{"1"=>"fred", "2"=>"joe"}}
Also, since you're using Sinatra, it's not necessary to use Active Record. Sequel is a very good ORM, and is my personal favorite when working with Sinatra. You might find it easier to work with.

Answer 2

Another option to manual serialization is to use ActiveModel::Serializer which allows you to define relationships between objects and gives you finer grained choices of what to include when you serialize, what to filter out and what related objects to preload. An alternative could also be Rabl which also has quite a nice API.
If you're just playing around with a small amount of JSON this might be overkill, but it's a nice practice to be more organized