How do I use XML Builder to create xml in rails? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am trying the following, but the output XML is badly formed:
xml = Builder::XmlMarkup.new({:target => display })
xml.instruct!
xml.mail {
xml.documents {
xml.document {
xml.template {
xml.source "gallery"
xml.name "Postcard: Image fill front"
}
xml.sections {
xml.section {
xml.name "Text"
xml.text "Hello, world"
}
xml.section {
xml.name "Image"
xml.attachment "1136946686-3425"
}
} #sections
} #document
} #documents
xml.addresses {
xml.addressee {
xml.name "Me"
xml.address "Street"
xml.city "San Francisco"
xml.state "CA"
}
}
}
#xml_display = xml
I need it to look more like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mail>
<documents>
<document>
<template>
<source>gallery</source>
<name>Postcard: Image fill front</name>
</template>
<sections>
<section>
<name>Text</name>
<text>Hello, World!</text>
</section>
<section>
<name>Image</name>
<attachment>...attachment id...</attachment>
</section>
</sections>
</document>
</documents>
<addressees>
<addressee>
<name>John Doe</name>
<address>123 Main St</address>
<city>Anytown</city>
<state>AZ</state>
<postal-code>10000</postal-code>
</addressee>
</addressees>
</mail>
My code ends up looking like this in the view (page source):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><mail/><documents/><document/><template/><source>gallery</source><name>Postcard: Image fill front</name>
NOTE: The final XML needs to be POSTED to a URL, and I am using rest-client and so want everything to become an instance variable that is passed as the body.
The instance variable is just #xml_display = xml but it's not working... :(

Answer 1

You can pass a block to each of those to nest the items.
xml.mail do |mail|
mail.documents do |documents|
documents.document do |document|
document.template do |template|
template.source "gallery"
template.name "Postcard: Image fill front"
end
end
end
end
There's more information on the builder rubyforge page.