Question

I have models like this:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
    has_many :cookies
    has_many :fortunes, :through => :cookies

    def new_cookies
        cookies.all :include => :fortune, :conditions => {:opened => false}
    end
end

class Cookie < ActiveRecord::Base
    belongs_to :user
    belongs_to :fortune

    def self.find_by_shortened_id(shortened_id)
        find(shortened_id.alphadecimal)
    end

    def shortened_id
        self.id.alphadecimal
    end
end

class Fortune < ActiveRecord::Base
    serialize :rstatuses
    serialize :genders 

    has_many :cookies
    has_many :users, :through => :cookies
end

I need to convert a User object to json, but I want it to include all cookies with are new (via new_cookies method), and embed in those cookies a) shortened_id and b) the id of it’s fortune.

Is this possible with to_json?

I have the follow so far which gives me the new cookies:

user.to_json :methods => :new_cookies

But I am stuck at trying to figure out how to include in the cookie object the value returned by method shortened_id and the cookies’s fortune’s id.

Answer 1

You may override as_json in your user model.

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

  def as_json(options={})
    json_res = super
    json_res['cookies'] = ...
  end

end

If these types of JSON customizations are needed in several places in your application, you should have a look at the jbuilder gem for rendering your JSON.