How to flatten a JSON response when using ActiveResource? - ruby-on-rails

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#recruiter.com", password: "tyu678$--è", full_name: "David Blaine", company: "GE")
dave.save
The request I send is formatted like so:
{"recruiter":{
"email": "email#recruiter.com",
"password": "tyu678$--è",
"full_name": "David Blaine",
"company": "GE"
}
}
and the Json response I get from the API is formatted like:
{"recruiter":{
"email": "email#recruiter.com",
"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