Rails rendering JSON --> Square Brakets?

Question

i render some object using json:

def index
  if user_signed_in?
   @todos = current_user.todos.find_all()
   render :json => @todos
  else
    return nil
  end
end

it actually does that, but there's a problem. I get square brakets [ ] arround the json output and some plugins or json viewers cannot read it because of them. Here some sample output:

[{"todo":{"name":"Test todo","created_at":"2010-11-24T07:40:07Z","updated_at":"2010-11-24T07:40:07Z","done":0,"id":1,"user_id":1}},{"todo":{"name":"Ali Test","created_at":"2010-11-24T07:40:30Z","updated_at":"2010-11-24T07:40:30Z","done":0,"id":2,"user_id":1}}]

thanks in advance!

find_all returns an array, so this is precisely the JSON you should expect. — aceofspades, Nov 29 '10 at 02:54
ahhh okay. so how can i render all entries with actually have those array brakets? — trnc, Nov 29 '10 at 07:01
`@todos.each{|t| t.to_json}` will give you an array of json objects that you could render separately. — aceofspades, Nov 29 '10 at 18:06
`@todos.each{|t| t.to_json}` works perfectly in rails 4.2.5 in a jbuilder view. Thanks aceofspades! — jfgrissom, Jan 31 '16 at 05:38

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:15

To get the JSON output you are expecting you need to render a Hash and not an Array. Here is an in-depth post on converting:

What is the best way to convert an array to a hash in Ruby

Quick summary with OP syntax:

 render :json => Hash[*@todos.flatten]

or for an asymmetrical array

render :json => Hash[@todos.map {|key, value| [key, value]}]

In some cases though this adds extra nulls that you don't want and you may have to break your array down and flatten it or simply use Hash[ instead of [ whenever possible.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 24 '10 at 08:08

0

Have you tried?

render :json => @todos.to_json

answered Nov 24 '10 at 08:08

tjeden

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Rails rendering JSON --> Square Brakets?

2 Answers2