Question

In Rails 2.3.6 I’m storing some serialized data in a database field.

My “feed_event.data” field in my database is stored as text and is (for example) equal to:

{:post=>{:pic=>"http://s3.amazonaws.com/criticalcity/datas/3524/big_thumb/send-a-letter.jpg", :name=>"Un’istruzione perfetta", :id=>1995, :authors=>"Delilah"}, :user=>{:pic=>"http://s3.amazonaws.com/criticalcity/avatars/537/thumb/DSCN2744.JPG", :name=>"Luci!", :id=>537}}

Now I need to output this field as a string (exactly as it is in the database), but when I ask:

puts feed_event.data

outputs:

postpichttp://s3.amazonaws.com/criticalcity/datas/3524/big_thumb/send-a-letter.jpgnameUn’istruzione perfettaid1995authorsDelilahuserpichttp://s3.amazonaws.com/criticalcity/avatars/537/thumb/DSCN2744.JPGnameLuci!

Why?
How can I output it as a yaml string?

UPDATE

In order to create it I have this in my FeedEvent model:

class FeedEvent < ActiveRecord::Base
   has_many :user_feed_events, :dependent => :destroy
   has_many :users, :through => :user_feed_events

   serialize :data

 end

And in order to create a new FeedEvent element I do:

feed = FeedEvent.create(:event_type => "comment #{commentable_type}", :type_id => id, :data => {:user => {:id => user.id, :name => user.name, :pic => user.avatar.url(:thumb)}, :comment => {:id => id, :body => body, :commentable_id => commentable_id, :commentable_type => :commentable_type, :commentable_name => commentable.name}}) 

UPDATE #2

following nzifnab’s hint I used the .to_yaml method, but what Rails outputs in this case is:

data: "--- \n:post: \n  :pic: http://s3.amazonaws.com/criticalcity/datas/3524/big_thumb/send-a-letter.jpg\n  :authors: Delilah\n  :name: \"Un\\xE2\\x80\\x99istruzione perfetta\"\n  :id: 1995\n:user: \n  :pic: http://s3.amazonaws.com/criticalcity/avatars/537/thumb/DSCN2744.JPG\n  :name: Luci!\n  :id: 537\n"

Also commenting “serialize :data” in the model outputs the same.

Thanks,
Augusto

Answer 1

When you call feed_data.data rails has automatically de-serialized your string. You could print it out like this:

feed_data.data.inspect to get the ruby hash representation as a string, but since it’s already de-serialized it for you do you need to do anything else?

you can call everything on it like feed_data.data[:post][:pic]

I’m not sure what method you can use to grab the raw serialized string from the record, but usually you don’t need to.