emberjs JSON format handling

Question

I have an Employee model in my emberjs app, and I am trying to load the Employees content using a RESTful web service which come in the following format:

{
    "Result": [
        {
            "EmployeeId": "1",
            "EmployeeName": "Mark Smith",
            "Active": 0,
            "Dept": "Sales"
        },
        {
            "EmployeeId": "2",
            "EmployeeName": "John Smith",
            "Active": 1,
            "Dept": "Sales"
        },
        {
            "EmployeeId": "3",
            "EmployeeName": "Michael Smith",
            "Active": 1,
            "Dept": "Administration"
        }
    ],
    "ResultCount": 3
}

Here I am facing 3 problems:

1. Is it possible to read this JSON format and add it to the Employee model, I understand that "Result" should have been "Employees" but I have no control over the return JSON format so if it is possible to use "Result" that will be great. Any example on doing so is highly appreciated.

2. How can I handle "ResultCount"? Is there a way I can read it as part of Employee model?

3. How I can read "Active" in the app View as "Active" / "Not Active" instead of 0 or 1?

Thanks for your time

Answer 1

As pointed out by jasonpgignac, you'll need to write a custom serailizer/deserializer to get the data into ember-data.

Once you have your data loaded ResultCount isn't required. You should use the 'length' property on the returned collection.

As part of your serializer you'll want to convert 0/1 to false/true in your model. You can them add a property like:

activeLabel: ( ->
  if @get('active')
    'Active'
  else
    'Not Active'
).property('active')

and use this property in your templates.

As requested, here's a sample class from a project of mine:

App.StudentSerializer = DS.ActiveModelSerializer.extend

  serializeBelongsTo: (record, json, relationship) ->
    key = relationship.key
    if key is 'attendance'
      @serializeAttendance(record, json)
    else
      json["#{key}_id"] = record.get("#{key}.id")

  serializeAttendance: (record, json) ->
    attendance = record.get('attendance')
    json['attendance'] = {}
    ['monday', 'tuesday', 'wednesday', 'thursday', 'friday'].forEach( (day) =>
      json['attendance'][day] = attendance.get(day)
    )

  serializeHasMany: (record, json, relationship) ->
    key = relationship.key

    jsonKey = Ember.String.singularize(key) + '_ids'
    json[jsonKey] = []
    record.get(key).forEach( (item) ->
      json[jsonKey].push(item.get('id'))
    )

My store.coffee looks like:

App.Store = DS.Store.extend
  # Override the default adapter with the `DS.ActiveModelAdapter` which
  # is built to work nicely with the ActiveModel::Serializers gem.
  adapter: '_ams'

App.ApplicationSerializer = DS.ActiveModelSerializer.extend()

You'll probably want to use the JsonAdapter and extend it if you don't have any control over the backend. As I said below, I haven't done deserialising but there should be the necessary hooks for you to convert into the format required by ember-data.