I need your help on to_xml function. How can i make all nil="True" value to a default value '' (blank) when exporting to xml from active record.
The #to_xml method Rails adds to ActiveRecord, Array, and Hash uses the builder gem by default. The XML is also passed through ActiveSupport::XmlMini where the addition of the nil="true" attribute is hard coded to always be added for nil attributes.
You should probably look at using builder directly to build your XML if these values are problematic.
Builder::XmlMarkup.new.object{|xml| xml.value "" }
#=> "<object><value></value></object>"
You could also use other XML libraries. I only recommend builder because it is the rails default and likely already installed.
Another option is to convert the object into a Hash first (object.attributes works if object is an ActiveRecord instance). You can then convert any nils into blank strings.
data = object.attributes
data.each_pair{|col, val| data[col] = "" if val.nil? }
data.to_xml
You can add a method to set special default values for XML generation. This method can then be called from an overridden to_xml method which duplicates the record in memory, sets default values and finally generates the xml. Example code:
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
def set_xml_defaults
blanks = self.attributes.find_all{|k,v| v.nil? }.map{|k,v| [k,''] }
self.attributes = Hash[blanks]
end
alias_method :to_xml_no_defaults, :to_xml
def to_xml(options = {}, &block)
dup = self.dup
dup.set_xml_defaults
dup.to_xml_no_defaults
end
end
Related
In my rails model I have a JSON column which stores some meta information.
This is to be entered bu the user from a form.
Since the keys of the JSON column are not attributes of the model I cannot use them directly in form_for instead I need to define a virtual attribute.
Since this number of virtual attributes could grow to be arbitrarily lengthy I would like to use meta programming to define the attributes.
I did try the answer in this question however when I use the constant in my model I get an error saying that the constant is undefined. So I added the symbols for the keys in an array directly and iterate over them in the module. When I do this I get an error that says stack level too deep.
Please can someone help me out here?
If you are using PostgreSQL specific columns like hstore or json simply use store_accessor instead to generate the accessor methods. Be aware that these columns use a string keyed hash and do not allow access using a symbol.
class Model < ActiveRecord::Base
store_accessor :my_json_column, [ :key_1, :key_2, key_3 ]
end
What it doing under the hood? It has define write\read helper methods:
def store_accessor(store_attribute, *keys)
keys = keys.flatten
_store_accessors_module.module_eval do
keys.each do |key|
define_method("#{key}=") do |value|
write_store_attribute(store_attribute, key, value)
end
define_method(key) do
read_store_attribute(store_attribute, key)
end
end
end
# .....
store
I figured it out. I return the attribute as a key of the JSON column and it works fine now.
# lib/virtuals.rb
module Virtuals
%W(key_1 key_2 key_3).each do |attr|
define_method(attr) do
self.my_json_column[attr]
end
define_method("#{attr}=") do |val|
self.my_json_column[attr] = val
end
end
end
In my Model i just need to include that above module and it works fine in the form_for and updates correctly as well.
I'm new to Ruby and having a little trouble json. I have inherited my classes with custom made JSONable class, as explained HERE in this answer. I have customized it according to my need, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work with custom nested (complex) objects, according to my requirement. I have following scenario.
First Class:
class Option < JSONable
def IncludeAll=(includeAll) #bool
#includeAll = includeAll
end
def IncludeAddress=(includeAddress) #bool
#includeAddress= includeAddress
end
......
Second Class:
class Search < JSONable
def CustomerId=(customerId)
#customerId = customerId
end
def identifier=(identifier)
#identifier = identifier
end
def Options=(options) #This is expected to be of Class Option, declared above
#options = options
end
Third Class:
class Request < JSONable
def DateTimeStamp=(dateTimeStamp)
#dateTimeStamp = dateTimeStamp
end
def SDKVersion=(sDKVersion)
#sDKVersion = sDKVersion
end
def RequestMessage=(requestMessage) #This is of type Search, declared above
#requestMessage = requestMessage
end
I call it as:
search = Search.new
searchOpts = Options.new
request = Request.new
search.identifier = identifier
searchOpts.IncludeAll = false
searchOpts.IncludeAddress = true
search.Options = searchOpts #setting nested level2 property here
//THE MOST OUTER CLASS OBJECT
request.SDKVersion = "xyz"
request.RequestMessage = search #setting nested level1
My ultimate goal is to send this request object to an API, after converting it to JSON. so i call to_json on request object as:
request.to_json
But here, suggested solution in that post (JSONable) fails in this case, as it can't convert the nested complex objects request.search and request.search.Options to Json.
(gives error: in 'to_json': wrong number of arguments (1 for 0) (ArgumentError)')
What I tried:
class JSONable
def to_json
hash = {}
self.instance_variables.each do |var|
#hash[var] = self.instance_variable_get var #tried to apply following check
if((self.instance_variable_get var).instance_of? Options ||((varVal).instance_of? Search))
varVal = self.instance_variable_get var
hash[var] = varVal.to_json #convert inner object to json
else
hash[var] = self.instance_variable_get var
end
end
hash.to_json
end
.....
This converts the nested model without any problem, but it messes up the 3rd level json. The result is as following:
{"DateTimeStamp":"121212","SDKVersion":"1.5","Culture":"en","RequestMessage":"{\"identifier\":\"851848913\",\"Options\":\"{\\\"IncludeAll\\\":true,\\\"IncludeAssociatedEntities\\\":true,\\\"IncludeAddress\\\":true,\\\"IncludePaymentInstructions\\\":true}\"}"}
And API doesn't respond. It seems as it messes up the boolean variables, which should be something like:
"SearchOption":"{\"IncludeAll\":true,\"IncludeAssociatedEntities\":true,\...
but it gives:
"SearchOption\":\"{\\\"IncludeAll\\\":true,\\\"IncludeAssociatedEntities\\\":true,\\\"Includ...
So the API logic can't cast it to corresponding bool objects anymore. JSON validator also fails to validate this result, i checked online
Questions:
How can I avoid this, and produce valid JSON in this case?
How can I apply generic check to in my JSONable class to check if the object is of some custom class / complex object.
(currently i have checked only for specific classes as:)
if((self.instance_variable_get var).instance_of? Options ||((varVal).instance_of? Search))
Other Info:
It works fine for all complex objects, having no nested objects
API is developed in .NET
I'm not using Rails, its a Ruby console app (I'm new to Ruby)
The answer you referred is dated “Dec 2010.” JSON library is included in ruby stdlib for years already and it perfectly converts Hash instances to json. That said, you just need to construct hashes out of your objects and then call JSON.dump on the resulting hash. I have no idea what JSONable is and you definitely do not need it. Introduce some base class, let’s call it Base:
class Base
def to_h
instance_variables.map do |iv|
value = instance_variable_get(:"##{iv}")
[
iv.to_s[1..-1], # name without leading `#`
case value
when Base then value.to_h # Base instance? convert deeply
when Array # Array? convert elements
value.map do |e|
e.respond_to?(:to_h) ? e.to_h : e
end
else value # seems to be non-convertable, put as is
end
]
end.to_h
end
end
Now just derive your classes from Base to make them respond to to_h, define all your instance variables as you did, and call:
require 'json'
JSON.dump request.to_h # request.to_h.to_json should work as well
The above should produce the nested JSON, hashes are happily converted to json by this library automagically.
I'm using Ruby with Sinatra and DataMapper. It is simple enough to create a "get" webservice that delivers a data set to a UI with something like Item.all().to_json
However, the intent is for the UI to use the data set for crud work and return a single JSON object for add or update. I haven't found an equivalent "from_json" DataMapper function to initialize an Item object.
As a work-around, I'm using JSON.parse, like this:
item_data = JSON.parse(request.body.read, :quirks_mode => true)
This works, but then I have to create a new DataMapper object, i.e. item = Item.new,
and copy all the elements from item_data to item, but I'd like to think there's a simpler way.
Any and all suggestions are welcome.
It seems you have:
class Item
property :body, String
end
So you might want to do this:
class Item
property :body, Json
end
The Json style property, works just like String, the only difference is that on load/store the data will go through the JSON parser.
I had the same problem!
You can create a helper like this:
helpers do
def json_params
begin
JSON.parse(request.body.read)
rescue
halt 400, { message:'Invalid JSON' }.to_json
end
end
end
And create your Datamapper object:
#object = Object.new(json_params)
#object.save
I am using DataMapper for Database access. My goal is to send the models to an webservice as read-only object. This is my current try:
class User
include DataMapper::Resource
def to_yaml(opts = {})
mini_me = OpenStruct.new
instance_variables.each do |var|
next if /^#_/ =~ var.to_s
mini_me.send("#{var.to_s.gsub(/^#/, '')}=", instance_variable_get(var))
end
mini_me.to_yaml(opts)
end
....
end
YAML::ENGINE.yamler = 'psych'
u = User.get("hulk")
p u.to_yaml
# => "--- !ruby/object:OpenStruct\ntable:\n :uid: hulk\n :uidNumber: 1000\n :gidNumber: 1001\n :email: hulk#example.com\n :dn: uid=hulk,ou=People,o=example\n :name: Hulk\n :displayName: Hulk\n :description: Hulk\n :homeDirectory: /home/hulk\n :accountFlags: ! '[U ]'\n :sambaSID: S-1-5-21-......\nmodifiable: true\n"
p [ u ].to_yaml # TypeError: can't dump anonymous class Class
Any ideas how to make this work and get rid of the exception?
Thanks,
krissi
Using to_yaml is deprecated in Psych, and from my testing it seems to be actually broken in cases like this.
When you call to_yaml directly on your object, your method gets called and you get the result you expect. When you call it on the array containing your object, Psych serializes it but doesn’t correctly handle your to_yaml method, and ends up falling back onto the default serialization. In your case this results in an attempt to serialize an anonymous Class which causes the error.
To fix this, you should use the encode_with method instead. If it’s important that the serialized form is tagged as an OpenStruct object in the generated yaml you can use the represent_object (that first nil parameter doesn’t seem to be used):
def encode_with(coder)
mini_me = OpenStruct.new
instance_variables.each do |var|
next if /^#_/ =~ var.to_s
mini_me.send("#{var.to_s.gsub(/^#/, '')}=", instance_variable_get(var))
end
coder.represent_object(nil, mini_me)
end
If you were just using OpenStruct for convenience, an alternative could be something like:
def encode_with(coder)
instance_variables.each do |var|
next if /^#_/ =~ var.to_s
coder[var.to_s.gsub(/^#/, '')]= instance_variable_get(var)
end
end
Note that Datamapper has its own serializer plugin that provides yaml serialization for models, it might be worth looking into.
I have a SchoolDay class that represents a school day: it can tell you the date, the semester, the term, the week, and the day. It can generate a string like "Sem1 13A Fri". To store these objects in the database, I want them serialized as a string.
Here is my DataMapper custom type code. I've sort of scraped ideas from the code in dm-types because (disappointingly) there is no real documentation for creating custom types. Sorry it's long.
module DataMapper
class Property
class SchoolDay < DataMapper::Property::String
#load_as ::SchoolRecord::DomainObjects::SchoolDay
# Commented out: the 'load_as' method is not found
def load(value)
# Take a string from the database and load it. We need a calendar!
val = case value
when ::String then calendar.schoolday(value)
when ::SR::DO::SchoolDay then value
else
# fail
end
end
def dump(value)
# Store a SchoolDay value into the database as a string.
case value
when SR::DO::SchoolDay
sd = value
"Sem#{sd.semester} #{sd.weekstr} #{sd.day}"
when ::String
value
else
# fail
end
end
def typecast(value)
# I don't know what this is supposed to do -- that is, when and why it
# is called -- but I am aping the behaviour of the Regexp custom type,
# which, like this one, stores as a String and loads as something else.
load(value)
end
# private methods calendar() and error_message() omitted
end
end
end
This code works for reading from the (SQLite) database, but not for creating new rows. The error message is:
Schoolday must be of type String
The code that defines the DataMapper resource and tries to create the record is:
class LessonDescription
include DataMapper::Resource
property :id, Serial
property :schoolday, SchoolDay # "Sem1 3A Fri"
property :class_label, String # "10"
property :period, Integer # (0..6), 0 being before school
property :description, Text # "Completed yesterday's worksheet. hw:(4-07)"
end
# ...
ld = LessonDescription.create(
schoolday: #schoolday,
class_label: #class_label,
period: #period,
description: description
)
Here is the code for the Regexp datamapper type in the dm-types library. It's so simple!
module DataMapper
class Property
class Regexp < String
load_as ::Regexp # NOTE THIS LINE
def load(value)
::Regexp.new(value) unless value.nil?
end
def dump(value)
value.source unless value.nil?
end
def typecast(value)
load(value)
end
end
end
end
For some reason, I cannot use the load_as line in my code.
To summarise: I am trying to create a custom type that translates between a SchoolDay (domain object) and a String (database representation). The translation is easy, and I've copied the code structure primarily from the DataMapper Regexp type. But when I try to save a SchoolDay, it complains that I'm not giving it a string. Frustratingly, I can't use the "load_as" method that the built-in and custom types all use, even though I have the latest gem. I can't find the "load_as" method defined anywhere in the source code for DataMapper, either. But it's called!
Sorry for the ridiculous length. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as would a pointer to a guide for creating these things that I have somehow missed.
It seems that the current code of dm-types at github hasn't made it to any official release -- that's why load_as doesn't work in your example. But try to add this method:
module DataMapper
class Property
class SchoolDay < DataMapper::Property::String
def custom?
true
end
end
end
end
That's working here.