JRB Templates

JRB Templates makes it easy to write JSON web services in Rails. Rather than maintaining two views for the collection and the individual resource, or rendering a third via a partial, you only have to write a single .jrb view.

I'll write some tests just as soon an I figure out how to write tests for this thing. Do I need a full-blown Rails app?

Installation

Either

$ gem install jrb_template

or add

gem jrb_template

to your ./Gemfile

Examples

Using the new Ruby 1.9 hash format, you can just write something that looks a lot like JSON:

# app/views/books/book.json.jrb
{
  href:        book_url(book),
  _type:       "Book",
  title:       book.title
  author_href: author_url(book.author),
  synopsis:    book.summary,
  isbn:        format_isbn(book.isbn),
  created_at:  book.created_at,
  updated_at:  book.updated_at
}

In Ruby 1.8, you have to use the old hash format, and the order gets jumbled.

Then, in your controller:

# app/controllers/books_controller.rb

class BooksController < ApplicationController

  def index
    @books = Book.all

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html
      format.json { render :jrb_collection => @books }
    end
  end

  def show
    @book = Book.find(params[:id])

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html
      format.json { render :jrb => @book }
    end
  end

end

Note: I do not recommend using application/json as the mime type extension. Please see Versioning REST Web Services.

Results in the following json:

# GET /books
{
  href: "http://example.com/books",
  count: 1,
  items: [
    {
      href: "http://example.com/books/1
      _type: "Book",
      title: "Death From the Skies!",
      author_href: "http://example.com/authors/plait_philip_c",
      synopsis: " These Are the Ways the World Will End...",
      isbn: "978-0670019977",
      created_at: "2010-12-13T18:44:22Z",
      updated_at: "2010-12-13T18:44:22Z"
    }
  ]
}

# GET /books/1
{
  href: "http://example.com/books/1
  _type: "Book",
  title: "Death From the Skies!",
  author_href: "http://example.com/authors/plait_philip_c",
  synopsis: " These Are the Ways the World Will End...",
  isbn: "978-0670019977",
  created_at: "2010-12-13T18:44:22Z",
  updated_at: "2010-12-13T18:44:22Z"
}