Json(/hash) To Ruby Object?

In Javascript you can access json as objects. person = { name: { first: 'Peter', last: 'Parker' } } person.name.first In ruby I have to use it like this: person[:name

Solution 1:

You should check out the Hashie gem. It lets you do just what you are looking for. It has a Mash class which takes JSON and XML parsed hashes and gives you object-like access. It actually does deep-dives into the hash, converting any arrays or hashes inside the hash, etc.

http://github.com/intridea/hashie

Solution 2:

There is a json gem in ruby. Perhaps that will help.

http://flori.github.com/json/

Solution 3:

JavaScript uses object attributes as its implementation of associative arrays. So, using Ruby's hash type is basically doing the same thing.

Solution 4:

Rails has built in support for encoding hashes as JSON and decoding JSON into a hash through ActiveSupport::JSON. Using built-in support avoids the need for installing a gem.

For example:
hash = ActiveSupport::JSON.decode("{ \"color\" : \"green\" }") 
  => {"color"=>"green"} 
hash["color"]
  => "green"

For more info, see: http://www.simonecarletti.com/blog/2010/04/inside-ruby-on-rails-serializing-ruby-objects-with-json/