active_model_serializers_rails_2.3 0.9.0.alpha1

data/MIT-LICENSE

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+Copyright (c) 2011-2012 José Valim & Yehuda Katz
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
+included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
+EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
+MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
+NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
+LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
+OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
+WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
+

data/README.md

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+[![Build Status](https://api.travis-ci.org/rails-api/active_model_serializers.png)](https://travis-ci.org/rails-api/active_model_serializers) 
+[![Code Climate](https://codeclimate.com/github/rails-api/active_model_serializers.png)](https://codeclimate.com/github/rails-api/active_model_serializers) 
+[![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/rails-api/active_model_serializers/badge.png?branch=master)](https://coveralls.io/r/rails-api/active_model_serializers)
+
+# ActiveModel::Serializers
+
+# Important Notes for this Rails 2.3 Backport
+
+This is a backport of the ActiveModel::Serializers gem to be compatible with
+Rails 2.3. The following features have been removed:
+
+* Controller `render` method support. This means you'll need to instantiate
+the serializer yourself and pass it to `render`. E.g. `render :json => FooSerializer.new(foo, scope: user)`
+* Generators are gone as well.
+* Probably won't be supported for a long amount of time. Please do your best to upgrade
+to rails 3.2+ as soon as possible. Feel free to open an issue whenever I run
+too far behind upstream's master branch.
+
+## Rails 2-3- 0.9.0
+
+**Rails 2-3 is under development, there are some incompatible changes with the current stable release.**
+
+Since `0.8` there is no `options` accessor in the serializers. Some issues and pull-requests are attemps to bring back the ability to use Rails url helpers in the serializers, but nothing is really settled yet.
+
+If you want to read the stable documentation visit [0.8 README](https://github.com/rails-api/active_model_serializers/blob/0-8-stable/README.md)
+
+## Purpose
+
+`ActiveModel::Serializers` encapsulates the JSON serialization of objects. 
+Objects that respond to read\_attribute\_for\_serialization 
+(including `ActiveModel` and `ActiveRecord` objects) are supported.
+
+Serializers know about both a model and the `current_user`, so you can
+customize serialization based upon whether a user is authorized to see the
+content.
+
+In short, **serializers replace hash-driven development with object-oriented
+development.**
+
+# Installing
+
+The easiest way to install `ActiveModel::Serializers` is to add it to your
+`Gemfile`:
+
+```ruby
+gem "active_model_serializers_rails2.3", git: "https://github.com/fivetanley/active_model_serializers", branch: 'rails-2.3'
+```
+
+Then, install it on the command line:
+
+```
+$ bundle install
+```
+
+#### Ruby 1.8 is no longer supported!
+
+If you must use a ruby 1.8 version (MRI 1.8.7, REE, Rubinius 1.8, or JRuby 1.8), you need to use version 0.8.x.
+Versions after 0.9.0 do not support ruby 1.8. To specify version 0.8, include this in your Gemfile:
+
+```ruby
+gem "active_model_serializers", "~> 0.8.0"
+```
+
+
+# Creating a Serializer
+
+The easiest way to create a new serializer is to generate a new resource, which
+will generate a serializer at the same time:
+
+```
+$ rails g resource post title:string body:string
+```
+
+This will generate a serializer in `app/serializers/post_serializer.rb` for
+your new model. You can also generate a serializer for an existing model with
+the serializer generator:
+
+```
+$ rails g serializer post
+```
+
+### Support for POROs
+
+Currently `ActiveModel::Serializers` expects objects to implement
+read\_attribute\_for\_serialization. That's all you need to do to have
+your POROs supported. 
+
+# render :json
+
+In your controllers, when you use `render :json`, Rails will now first search
+for a serializer for the object and use it if available.
+
+```ruby
+class PostsController < ApplicationController
+  def show
+    @post = Post.find(params[:id])
+    render json: @post
+  end
+end
+```
+
+In this case, Rails will look for a serializer named `PostSerializer`, and if
+it exists, use it to serialize the `Post`.
+
+This also works with `respond_with`, which uses `to_json` under the hood. Also
+note that any options passed to `render :json` will be passed to your
+serializer and available as `@options` inside.
+
+To specify a custom serializer for an object, you can specify the
+serializer when you render the object:
+
+```ruby
+render json: @post, serializer: FancyPostSerializer
+```
+
+## Arrays
+
+In your controllers, when you use `render :json` for an array of objects, AMS will
+use `ActiveModel::ArraySerializer` (included in this project) as the base serializer,
+and the individual `Serializer` for the objects contained in that array.
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :title, :body
+end
+
+class PostsController < ApplicationController
+  def index
+    @posts = Post.all
+    render json: @posts
+  end
+end
+```
+
+Given the example above, the index action will return
+
+```json
+{
+  "posts":
+    [
+      { "title": "Post 1", "body": "Hello!" },
+      { "title": "Post 2", "body": "Goodbye!" }
+    ]
+}
+```
+
+By default, the root element is the name of the controller. For example, `PostsController`
+generates a root element "posts". To change it:
+
+```ruby
+render json: @posts, root: "some_posts"
+```
+
+You may disable the root element for arrays at the top level, which will result in
+more concise json. See the next section for ways on how to do this. Disabling the
+root element of the array with any of those methods will produce
+
+```json
+[
+  { "title": "Post 1", "body": "Hello!" },
+  { "title": "Post 2", "body": "Goodbye!" }
+]
+```
+
+To specify a custom serializer for the items within an array:
+
+```ruby
+render json: @posts, each_serializer: FancyPostSerializer
+```
+
+## Render independently
+
+By default the setting of serializer is in controller as described above which is the
+recommeneded way. However, there may be cases you need to render the json object elsewhere
+say in a helper or a view when controller is only for main object.
+
+Then you can render the serialized JSON independently.
+
+```ruby
+def current_user_as_json_helper
+  CurrentUserSerializer.new(current_user).to_json
+end
+```
+
+## Disabling the root element
+
+You have 4 options to disable the root element, each with a slightly different scope:
+
+#### 1. Disable root globally for all, or per class
+
+In an initializer:
+
+```ruby
+# Disable for all serializers (except ArraySerializer)
+ActiveModel::Serializer.root = false
+
+# Disable for ArraySerializer
+ActiveModel::ArraySerializer.root = false
+```
+
+#### 2. Disable root per render call in your controller
+
+```ruby
+render json: @posts, root: false
+```
+
+#### 3. Subclass the serializer, and specify using it
+
+```ruby
+class CustomArraySerializer < ActiveModel::ArraySerializer
+  self.root = false
+end
+
+# controller:
+render json: @posts, serializer: CustomArraySerializer
+```
+
+#### 4. Define default_serializer_options in your controller
+
+If you define `default_serializer_options` method in your controller,
+all serializers in actions of this controller and it's children will use them.
+One of the options may be `root: false`
+
+```ruby
+def default_serializer_options
+  {
+    root: false
+  }
+end
+```
+
+## Getting the old version
+
+If you find that your project is already relying on the old rails to_json
+change `render :json` to `render json: @your_object.to_json`.
+
+# Attributes and Associations
+
+Once you have a serializer, you can specify which attributes and associations
+you would like to include in the serialized form.
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :id, :title, :body
+  has_many :comments
+end
+```
+
+## Attributes
+
+For specified attributes, a serializer will look up the attribute on the
+object you passed to `render :json`. It uses
+`read_attribute_for_serialization`, which `ActiveRecord` objects implement as a
+regular attribute lookup.
+
+Before looking up the attribute on the object, a serializer will check for the
+presence of a method with the name of the attribute. This allows serializers to
+include properties beyond the simple attributes of the model. For example:
+
+```ruby
+class PersonSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :first_name, :last_name, :full_name
+
+  def full_name
+    "#{object.first_name} #{object.last_name}"
+  end
+end
+```
+
+Within a serializer's methods, you can access the object being
+serialized as `object`.
+
+Since this shadows any attribute named `object`, you can include them through `object.object`. For example:
+
+```ruby
+class VersionSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attribute :version_object, key: :object
+
+  def version_object
+    object.object
+  end
+end
+```
+
+You can also access the `scope` method, which provides an
+authorization context to your serializer. By default, the context
+is the current user of your application, but this
+[can be customized](#customizing-scope).
+
+Serializers provides a method named `filter`, which should return an array
+used to determine what attributes and associations should be included in the output.
+This is typically used to customize output based on `current_user`. For example:
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :id, :title, :body, :author
+
+  def filter(keys)
+    if scope.admin?
+      keys
+    else
+      keys - [:author]
+    end
+  end
+end
+```
+
+And it's also safe to mutate keys argument by doing keys.delete(:author)
+in case you want to avoid creating two extra arrays. Note that if you do an
+in-place modification, you still need to return the modified array.
+
+If you would like the key in the outputted JSON to be different from its name
+in ActiveRecord, you can declare the attribute with the different name
+and redefine that method:
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  # look up subject on the model, but use title in the JSON
+  def title
+    object.subject
+  end
+
+  attributes :id, :body, :title
+  has_many :comments
+end
+```
+
+If you would like to add meta information to the outputted JSON, use the `:meta`
+option:
+
+```ruby
+render json: @posts, serializer: CustomArraySerializer, meta: {total: 10}
+```
+
+The above usage of `:meta` will produce the following:
+
+```json
+{
+  "meta": { "total": 10 },
+  "posts": [
+    { "title": "Post 1", "body": "Hello!" },
+    { "title": "Post 2", "body": "Goodbye!" }
+  ]
+}
+```
+
+If you would like to change the meta key name you can use the `:meta_key` option:
+
+```ruby
+render json: @posts, serializer: CustomArraySerializer, meta: {total: 10}, meta_key: 'meta_object'
+```
+
+The above usage of `:meta_key` will produce the following:
+
+```json
+{
+  "meta_object": { "total": 10 },
+  "posts": [
+    { "title": "Post 1", "body": "Hello!" },
+    { "title": "Post 2", "body": "Goodbye!" }
+  ]
+}
+```
+
+When using meta information, your serializer cannot have the `{ root: false }` option, as this would lead to
+invalid JSON. If you do not have a root key, the meta information will be ignored.
+
+If you would like direct, low-level control of attribute serialization, you can
+completely override the `attributes` method to return the hash you need:
+
+```ruby
+class PersonSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :first_name, :last_name
+
+  def attributes
+    hash = super
+    if scope.admin?
+      hash["ssn"] = object.ssn
+      hash["secret"] = object.mothers_maiden_name
+    end
+    hash
+  end
+end
+```
+
+## Associations
+
+For specified associations, the serializer will look up the association and
+then serialize each element of the association. For instance, a `has_many
+:comments` association will create a new `CommentSerializer` for each comment
+and use it to serialize the comment.
+
+By default, serializers simply look up the association on the original object.
+You can customize this behavior by implementing a method with the name of the
+association and returning a different Array. Often, you will do this to
+customize the objects returned based on the current user (scope).
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :id, :title, :body
+  has_many :comments
+
+  # only let the user see comments he created.
+  def comments
+    object.comments.where(created_by: scope)
+  end
+end
+```
+
+As with attributes, you can change the JSON key that the serializer should
+use for a particular association.
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :id, :title, :body
+
+  # look up comments, but use +my_comments+ as the key in JSON
+  has_many :comments, root: :my_comments
+end
+```
+
+Also, as with attributes, serializers will execute a filter method to
+determine which associations should be included in the output. For
+example:
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :id, :title, :body
+  has_many :comments
+
+  def filter(keys)
+    keys.delete :comments if object.comments_disabled?
+    keys
+  end
+end
+```
+
+Or ...
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :id, :title, :body
+  has_one :author
+  has_many :comments
+
+  def filter(keys)
+    keys.delete :author unless scope.admin?
+    keys.delete :comments if object.comments_disabled?
+    keys
+  end
+end
+```
+
+You may also use the `:serializer` option to specify a custom serializer class and the `:polymorphic` option to specify an association that is polymorphic (STI), e.g.:
+
+```ruby
+  has_many :comments, serializer: CommentShortSerializer
+  has_one :reviewer, polymorphic: true
+```
+
+Serializers are only concerned with multiplicity, and not ownership. `belongs_to` ActiveRecord associations can be included using `has_one` in your serializer.
+
+NOTE: polymorphic was removed because was only supported for has\_one
+associations and is in the TODO list of the project.
+
+## Embedding Associations
+
+By default, associations will be embedded inside the serialized object. So if
+you have a post, the outputted JSON will look like:
+
+```json
+{
+  "post": {
+    "id": 1,
+    "title": "New post",
+    "body": "A body!",
+    "comments": [
+      { "id": 1, "body": "what a dumb post" }
+    ]
+  }
+}
+```
+
+This is convenient for simple use-cases, but for more complex clients, it is
+better to supply an Array of IDs for the association. This makes your API more
+flexible from a performance standpoint and avoids wasteful duplication.
+
+To embed IDs instead of associations, simply use the `embed` class method:
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  embed :ids
+
+  attributes :id, :title, :body
+  has_many :comments
+end
+```
+
+Now, any associations will be supplied as an Array of IDs:
+
+```json
+{
+  "post": {
+    "id": 1,
+    "title": "New post",
+    "body": "A body!",
+    "comment_ids": [ 1, 2, 3 ]
+  }
+}
+```
+
+Alternatively, you can choose to embed only the ids or the associated objects per association:
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :id, :title, :body
+
+  has_many :comments, embed: :objects
+  has_many :tags, embed: :ids
+end
+```
+
+The JSON will look like this:
+
+```json
+{
+  "post": {
+    "id": 1,
+    "title": "New post",
+    "body": "A body!",
+    "comments": [
+      { "id": 1, "body": "what a dumb post" }
+    ],
+    "tag_ids": [ 1, 2, 3 ]
+  }
+}
+```
+
+In addition to supplying an Array of IDs, you may want to side-load the data
+alongside the main object. This makes it easier to process the entire package
+of data without having to recursively scan the tree looking for embedded
+information. It also ensures that associations that are shared between several
+objects (like tags), are only delivered once for the entire payload.
+
+You can specify that the data be included like this:
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  embed :ids, include: true
+
+  attributes :id, :title, :body
+  has_many :comments
+end
+```
+
+Assuming that the comments also `has_many :tags`, you will get a JSON like
+this:
+
+```json
+{
+  "post": {
+    "id": 1,
+    "title": "New post",
+    "body": "A body!",
+    "comment_ids": [ 1, 2 ]
+  },
+  "comments": [
+    { "id": 1, "body": "what a dumb post", "tag_ids": [ 1, 2 ] },
+    { "id": 2, "body": "i liked it", "tag_ids": [ 1, 3 ] },
+  ],
+  "tags": [
+    { "id": 1, "name": "short" },
+    { "id": 2, "name": "whiny" },
+    { "id": 3, "name": "happy" }
+  ]
+}
+```
+
+When side-loading data, your serializer cannot have the `{ root: false }` option, 
+as this would lead to invalid JSON. If you do not have a root key, the `include` 
+instruction will be ignored
+
+You can also specify a different root for the embedded objects than the key
+used to reference them:
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  embed :ids, include: true
+
+  attributes :id, :title, :body
+  has_many :comments, key: :comment_ids, root: :comment_objects
+end
+```
+
+This would generate JSON that would look like this:
+
+```json
+{
+  "post": {
+    "id": 1,
+    "title": "New post",
+    "body": "A body!",
+    "comment_ids": [ 1 ]
+  },
+  "comment_objects": [
+    { "id": 1, "body": "what a dumb post" }
+  ]
+}
+```
+
+You can also specify a different attribute to use rather than the ID of the
+objects:
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  embed :ids, include: true
+
+  attributes :id, :title, :body
+  has_many :comments, embed_key: :external_id
+end
+```
+
+This would generate JSON that would look like this:
+
+```json
+{
+  "post": {
+    "id": 1,
+    "title": "New post",
+    "body": "A body!",
+    "comment_ids": [ "COMM001" ]
+  },
+  "comments": [
+    { "id": 1, "external_id": "COMM001", "body": "what a dumb post" }
+  ]
+}
+```
+
+**NOTE**: The `embed :ids` mechanism is primary useful for clients that process
+data in bulk and load it into a local store. For these clients, the ability to
+easily see all of the data per type, rather than having to recursively scan the
+data looking for information, is extremely useful.
+
+If you are mostly working with the data in simple scenarios and manually making
+Ajax requests, you probably just want to use the default embedded behavior.
+
+## Customizing Scope
+
+In a serializer, `current_user` is the current authorization scope which the controller
+provides to the serializer when you call `render :json`. By default, this is
+`current_user`, but can be customized in your controller by calling
+`serialization_scope`:
+
+```ruby
+class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
+  serialization_scope :current_admin
+end
+```
+
+The above example will also change the scope from `current_user` to
+`current_admin`.
+
+Please note that, until now, `serialization_scope` doesn't accept a second
+object with options for specifying which actions should or should not take a
+given scope in consideration.
+
+To be clear, it's not possible, yet, to do something like this:
+
+```ruby
+class SomeController < ApplicationController
+  serialization_scope :current_admin, except: [:index, :show]
+end
+```
+
+So, in order to have a fine grained control of what each action should take in
+consideration for its scope, you may use something like this:
+
+```ruby
+class CitiesController < ApplicationController
+  serialization_scope nil
+
+  def index
+    @cities = City.all
+
+    render json: @cities, each_serializer: CitySerializer
+  end
+
+  def show
+    @city = City.find(params[:id])
+
+    render json: @city, scope: current_admin
+  end
+end
+```
+
+Assuming that the `current_admin` method needs to make a query in the database
+for the current user, the advantage of this approach is that, by setting
+`serialization_scope` to `nil`, the `index` action no longer will need to make
+that query, only the `show` action will.
+
+## Testing
+
+In order to test a Serializer, you can just call `.new` on it, passing the object to serialize:
+
+### MiniTest
+
+```ruby
+class TestPostSerializer < Minitest::Test
+  def setup
+    @serializer = PostSerializer.new Post.new(id: 123, title: 'some title', body: 'some text')
+  end
+
+  def test_special_json_for_api
+    assert_equal '{"post":{"id":123,"title":"some title","body":"some text"}}', @serializer.to_json
+  end
+```
+
+### RSpec
+
+```ruby
+describe PostSerializer do
+  it "creates special JSON for the API" do
+    serializer = PostSerializer.new Post.new(id: 123, title: 'some title', body: 'some text')
+    expect(serializer.to_json).to eql('{"post":{"id":123,"title":"some title","body":"some text"}}')
+  end
+end
+```
+
+## Caching
+
+NOTE: This functionality was removed from AMS and it's in the TODO list.
+We need to re-think and re-design the caching strategy for the next
+version of AMS.
+
+To cache a serializer, call `cached` and define a `cache_key` method:
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  cached  # enables caching for this serializer
+
+  attributes :title, :body
+
+  def cache_key
+    [object, scope]
+  end
+end
+```
+
+The caching interface uses `Rails.cache` under the hood.
+
+# ApplicationSerializer
+
+By default, new serializers descend from ActiveModel::Serializer. However, if you wish to share behaviour across your serializers you can create an ApplicationSerializer at ```app/serializers/application_serializer.rb```:
+
+```ruby
+class ApplicationSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+end
+```
+
+Any newly generated serializers will automatically descend from ApplicationSerializer.
+
+```
+$ rails g serializer post
+```
+
+now generates:
+
+```ruby
+class PostSerializer < ApplicationSerializer
+  attributes :id
+end
+````
+
+# Design and Implementation Guidelines
+
+## Keep it Simple
+
+`ActiveModel::Serializers` is capable of producing complex JSON views/large object
+trees, and it may be tempting to design in this way so that your client can make
+fewer requests to get data and so that related querying can be optimized.
+However, keeping things simple in your serializers and controllers may
+significantly reduce complexity and maintenance over the long-term development
+of your application. Please consider reducing the complexity of the JSON views
+you provide via the serializers as you build out your application, so that
+controllers/services can be more easily reused without a lot of complexity
+later.
+
+## Performance
+
+As you develop your controllers or other code that utilizes serializers, try to
+avoid n+1 queries by ensuring that data loads in an optimal fashion, e.g. if you
+are using ActiveRecord, you might want to use query includes or joins as needed
+to make the data available that the serializer(s) need.