Seri

A basic replacement for gems like active_model_serializers. Can turn any basic Ruby object into a Hash or JSON string with features like:

Aliasing attribute keys
Overriding attributes
Setting static values
Creating conditional attributes

See usage for more details.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'seri'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install seri

Usage

A serializer can be used as such:

require 'seri'

# example class:
class Car
  attr_accessor :mileage
end

# example serializer:
class CarSerializer < Seri::Serializer
  attribute :mileage
  attribute :brand
  attribute :mileage_alias, from: :mileage
  attribute :honk, static_value: 'honk honk'
  attribute :some_method
  attribute :some_conditional_method, condition: :a_condition
  attribute :some_other_conditional_method, condition: :b_condition

  def some_method
    object.mileage * 25
  end

  def brand
    'mercedes'
  end

  def some_conditional_method
    'visible condition'
  end

  def a_condition
    true
  end

  def some_other_conditional_method
    'non visible condition'
  end

  def b_condition
    !a_condition
  end
end

# example implementation:
car = Car.new
car.mileage = 25

serializer = CarSerializer.new(car)
serializer.to_json

Result from #to_json:

{
  "mileage": 25,
  "brand": "mercedes",
  "mileage_alias": 25,
  "honk": "honk_honk",
  "some_method": "625",
  "some_conditional_method": "visible_condition"
}

In turn there's also a Seri::GroupSerializer available which can take a group of cars and turn them into a serialized Array. If we extend the example from earlier we can do:

# example:
cars = [car, car]
group_serializer = Seri::GroupSerializer.new(cars, serializer: CarSerializer)

group_serializer.to_json

Result from #to_json:

[
  {
    "mileage": 25,
    "brand": "mercedes",
    "mileage_alias": 25,
    "honk": "honk_honk",
    "some_method": "625",
    "some_conditional_method": "visible_condition"
  },
  {
    "mileage": 25,
    "brand": "mercedes",
    "mileage_alias": 25,
    "honk": "honk_honk",
    "some_method": "625",
    "some_conditional_method": "visible_condition"
  }
]

Q&A

Q: This looks cool and all but how do I do a has_many?

Answer:

class A
  attr_accessor :some_amazing_attribute
end

class B
  attr_accessor :some_attribute

  def aaa
    [A.new, A.new, A.new]
  end
end

class ASerializer < Seri::Serializer
  attribute :some_amazing_attribute
end

class BSerializer < Seri::Serializer
  attribute :lots_of_a, from: :aaa, serializer: ASerializer
end

The result from BSerializer.new(b)#to_json:

{
  "lots_of_a": [
    { "some_amazing_attribute": null },
    { "some_amazing_attribute": null },
    { "some_amazing_attribute": null }
  ]
}

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/grdw/serializer. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Code of Conduct

Everyone interacting in the Serializer project’s codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.

seri

Development