GqlSerializer
GqlSerializer is a gem that makes it easy to serialize ActiveRecord objects into json using a short syntax similar to GraphQL instead of the more verbose syntax used by the as_json method.
Installation
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem 'gql_serializer'And then execute:
$ bundle install
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install gql_serializer
Basic Usage
Say you have the following User class
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attribute :email_address, :string
attribute :name, :string
def encoded_id
"User-#{id}"
end
endand you create a user
user = User.create(name: 'Test User', email_address: 'user@test.com')You can call as_gql with no arguments to get:
user.as_gql
=> {
"id"=>1,
"name"=>"Test User",
"email_address"=>"user@test.com"
}By default, all attributes are included in the serialized form but you can create you want with the right arguments and include methods.
user.as_gql('name encoded_id')
=> {
"name" => "Test User",
"encoded_id" => "User-1"
}Advanced Usage
Here's where the library becomes more powerful. The GraphQL-esque syntax allows for aliasing and digging into nested objects.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attribute :email_address, :string
attribute :name, :string
has_many :orders
def encoded_id
"User-#{id}"
end
end
class Order < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
attribute :total, :float
attribute :placed_at, :date_time
end
user = User.create(name: 'Test User', email_address: 'user@test.com')
order = Order.create(user: user, total: 3.50, placed_at: DateTime.now)
user.as_gql('name orders')
=> {
"name" => "Test User",
"orders" => [{
"id" => 1,
"total" => 3.5,
"placed_at" => "2020-12-23T08:30:00Z"
}]
}
order.as_gql('user { email_address encoded_id:real_id }')
=> {
"id" => 1,
"total" => 3.5,
"placed_at" => "2020-12-23T08:30:00Z",
"user" => {
"email_address" => "user@test.com",
"real_id" => "User-1"
}
}It's also possible to automatically convert the case of the keys into either camel case or snake case. We recommend that you configure this globally (see Configuration section) but it can be done using an optional second argument.
user.as_gql('email_address name:full_name', {case: GqlSerializer::Configuration::CAMEL_CASE})
=> {
"emailAddress" => "user@test.com",
"fullName" => "Test User"
}As of version 3, you can also use as_gql on hashes and embedded objects can also be serialized (as_gql is not added to all objects yet).
class Item
attr_accessor :name, :price
def initialize(name, price)
@name = name
@price = price
end
def display
name + ': ' + ("%.2f" % price)
end
end
hash = {
id: 1,
total_price: 11.50,
items: [
Item.new('Thing', 6.00), Item.new('Stuff', 5.50)
]
}
hash.as_gql('total_price items { name:item_name display }')
=> {
"total_price" => 11.5,
"items" => [{
"item_name" => "Thing",
"display" => "Thing: 6.00"
},{
"item_name" => "Stuff",
"display" => "Stuff: 5.50"
}]
}Configuration
In a Rails application, the configuration can be added to an initializer in config/initalizers/gql_serializer.rb. The following is the default configuration (no change):
GqlSerializer.configure do |config|
# no case conversion
config.case = GqlSerializer::Configuration::NONE_CASE
# avoids an additional query in some cases.
# Set to false for compatibility with version <= 2.1
config.preload = true
end
# Optionally add the `as_gql` method to all objects:
# Object.include GqlSerializer::ObjectThe options for case are: NONE_CASE, CAMEL_CASE, SNAKE_CASE.
Development
After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.
To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.
Contributing
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/TheDro/gql_serializer.
License
The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.