Rails scaffolding for JSON only

Question

When I use rails g scaffold Model key:string value:string command it creates both controller and views (erb, scss, js). How can I generate only controller which will respond with only JSON format.

Answer 1

Use API flag in Rails 5+

Without having to modify configuration:

rails g scaffold TestLink --api

Pro tip: Use the --pretend flag to see what will be created before running:

rails g scaffold TestLink --api --pretend

Answer 2

If you already have a project setup as a normal rails app, you can make the generators api only by setting it up in config/application.rb.

config.generators do |g|
  g.api_only = true
end

Answer 3

To change the Rails controller generated by the scaffold you can add a new file: lib/templates/rails/scaffold_controller/controller.rb. It might be helpful to copy the template from the Rails source code as a starting point. From there you can edit each of the actions to end with render json, for example:

# GET <%= route_url %>
def index
  @<%= plural_table_name %> = <%= orm_class.all(class_name) %>
  render json: @<%= plural_table_name %>.to_json
end

To prevent asset/view files from being generated, add this to your config/application.rb file:

module AppName
  class Application < Rails::Application
    # comments and config
    # ...
    config.generators do |g|
      g.stylesheets false
      g.javascripts false
      g.helper false
      g.views false
    end
  end
end