Support returning a Hash

[amayer171]

It would be helpful in some cases to return a hash.

This is already possible with the prepare method. https://github.com/procore/blueprinter/blob/master/lib/blueprinter/base.rb#L141 but it is listed as private and does not support the same interface as render.

Suggested method signature could be render_as_hash(object, options = {})

[philipqnguyen]

I'm curious to know in what use case you are running into that returning a hash would be needed?

[ojab]

I'm using server-side data normalization (and not using blueprinter [yet]) and all models are returned in a { [model_name]: [serialized_array] } hash, so something like

render json: { first_models: FirstModelBlueprint.render_as_hash(first_models),
               second_models: SecondModelBlueprint.render_as_hash(second_models) }

will be useful.
What is the proper way to do it right now?

[philipqnguyen]

@ojab Totally makes sense. Right now there is no proper way of doing it with Blueprinter. I think what @amayer171 suggested about creating a new render_as_hash that utilizes the prepare method makes sense. Would any of you want to take a stab at a PR for it?

[ojab]

I'd like yo take a stab, but render_as_hash name looks quite ugly (and long) to me tbh.
Since #67 is not closed yet — maybe it should be publish/prepublish? Or just plain and understandable to_json/as_json?

[amayer171]

My use case is that I'd like to start using blueprinter for nested objects in my existing serializers. These existing serializers expect a hash rather than a string because they provide their own stringify implementation so that they can stringify in the last step. Otherwise the blueprinter result will be a string literal with hash syntax escaped.

• render_as_hash is a little ugly, but it certainly does what it says.
• publish / prepublish seems to abstract.
• as_json is the existing method in AMS: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveModel/Serializers/JSON.html#method-i-as_json. Personally I don't love it since JSON has the connotation of being a string so that can cause some confusion.

[allanrsmith]

+1 render_as_hash

[dlcarter]

To mangle a Churchill quote, I think render_as_hash is the worst option, except for all the others. So I'd +1 that as well

[amayer171]

It's been too long since I've seen a Churchill quote on a PR 😂

[philipqnguyen]

#73 merged and released in 0.4.0