Question

I’m converting model query results to json and send them to selection box with

MyModel.find(params[:id]).my_sub_models.map(&:attributes)

I’m displaying my_sub_model :name(s) in selection box. Thats ok.

Later i added a column(:label) to sub model and i want to display a combined text in selection box like :name-:label. So i created a method

def combined_name
    self.name + "-" + self.label
end

How can i add combine_name for each item into my json now?

Any idea? Thanks

Answer 1

To include any methods on the model, use :methods.

my_model.to_json(:methods => :combined_name)
# => {"id": 1, "name": "My Name", "label": "Label",
      "created_at": "2012/02/01", "combined_name": "My Name - Label"}

Reference: API Doc.

Update:

to_json method of ActiveRecord was deprecated after 2.3.8. You probably are using Rails 3. A similar question was asked sometime back here and the responses might help you here. Especially about the gem acts_as_api. Do check.