Individual root by template

[medihack]

Hello again, Christian.

Would it be possible to also add an option for setting roots by template?

E.g. when rendering something to JSON in acts_as_api with :root => :users then it results in something like this:

{ users: [ { name: "tina" }, { name: "eva" } ] }

it would be nice to render it easily this way (maybe by adding a :root option to :api_accessible):

{ users: [ { user: { name: "tina" } },  { user: { name: "tina" } } ] }

The last one is also the default output of render :json => users.

[fabrik42]

Hi Kai,

I see your problem and I will take care of it this week. This is also a feature I want, so I can make acts_as_api compatible with backbone.js out of the box. :)

[fabrik42]

Btw: I've chosen another default response format as the Rails 3 default response format is imho not consistent, when it comes to render sub resources:

While rails wraps a collection of models in a root node by default

{ users: [ { user: { name: "tina" } },  { user: { name: "tina" } } ] }

It doesn't do this for included associations, e.g.

[
    {
        "user": {
            "created_at": "2011-04-26T08: 43: 10Z",
            "updated_at": "2011-04-26T08: 43: 10Z",
            "id": 1,
            "tasks": [
                {
                    "created_at": "2011-04-26T08: 44: 22Z",
                    "completed": false,
                    "updated_at": "2011-04-26T08: 44: 22Z",
                    "id": 2,
                    "user_id": 1,
                    "description": "Be a Jedi"
                },
                {
                    "created_at": "2011-04-26T08: 44: 30Z",
                    "completed": false,
                    "updated_at": "2011-04-26T08: 44: 30Z",
                    "id": 3,
                    "user_id": 1,
                    "description": "Destroy Deathstar"
                }
                ...
            ],
            "last_name": "Skywalker",
            "first_name": "Luke"
        }
    },
    ...
]

But I will add a config option to restore the default Rails behaviour. :)

[fabrik42]

Hi Kai,

just add

ActsAsApi::Config.include_root_in_json_collections = true

in your initializers and the response should look like the Rails 3 response.

[medihack]

Hi Christian, you are right with those inconsistencies in the Rails output. That's why we decided to use the more consistent way of your ActsAsApi default representation in upcoming projects. Thanks again for the great support.

[fabrik42]

You're welcome! :)