How to flatten a JSON response when using ActiveResource?

Question

I have an API and a client app, and I am using rails with ActiveResource.

I have a Recruiter model that inherits from ActiveResource::Base

Let's say on the client side I write:

dave = Recruiter.new(email: "[email protected]", password: "tyu678$--è", full_name:      "David Blaine", company: "GE") 
dave.save

The request I send is formatted like so:

{"recruiter":{
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "password": "tyu678$--è",
    "full_name": "David Blaine",
    "company": "GE"
    }
}

and the Json response I get from the API is formatted like:

   {"recruiter":{
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "password": "tyu678$--è",
    "full_name": "David Blaine",
    "company": "GE",
    "foo": "bar"
    },
    "app_token":"ApfXy8YYVtsipFLvJXQ"
}

The problem is that this will let me access the app token with dave.app_token but I can't for instance write dave.foo, which raises an error.

Is there a way to flatten the response or read through it recursively si that I can access all of my instance's attributes while keeping the API response formatted as it is?

Answer 1

Looking through the whole ActiveResource process, you can overwrite the load method in your Recruiter model.

I just added the code in the #HACK section which "flatten" your attributes.

def load(attributes, remove_root = false, persisted = false)
  raise ArgumentError, "expected an attributes Hash, got #{attributes.inspect}" unless attributes.is_a?(Hash)
  @prefix_options, attributes = split_options(attributes)

  # HACK
  if !attributes[:app_token].nil?
    attributes[:recruiter]["app_token"] = attributes[:app_token]
    attributes = attributes[:recruiter]
  end
  # /HACK

  if attributes.keys.size == 1
    remove_root = self.class.element_name == attributes.keys.first.to_s
  end

  attributes = ActiveResource::Formats.remove_root(attributes) if remove_root

  attributes.each do |key, value|
    @attributes[key.to_s] =
    case value
    when Array
      resource = nil
      value.map do |attrs|
        if attrs.is_a?(Hash)
          resource ||= find_or_create_resource_for_collection(key)
          resource.new(attrs, persisted)
        else
          attrs.duplicable? ? attrs.dup : attrs
        end
      end
    when Hash
      resource = find_or_create_resource_for(key)
      resource.new(value, persisted)
    else
      value.duplicable? ? value.dup : value
    end
  end
  self
end