How to create a Rails model without an HTML view

Question

I have a model that I only want to ever return JSON, regardless of any conneg or file-like extensions on the URI (e.g. /app/model.json). Google-fu is coming up short and this can't be that difficult.

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 14 '13 at 20:31

5

In your controllers you simple have to create a respond_to block that only responds to JSON:

respond_to do |format|
  format.json { render :json => @model }
end

answered Aug 14 '13 at 20:31

Christoph Eicke

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2

That's what I have now. so /app/model.json will return JSON but /app/model raises ActionController::UnknownFormat in InterestsController#index. So how to make json the default? – JStroop Aug 14 '13 at 20:38
2

Then you need to do it in your routing: `resources :model, :defaults => { :format => 'json' }` – Christoph Eicke Aug 14 '13 at 20:40
That's the sauce I was looking for. Thanks! – JStroop Aug 14 '13 at 20:43

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 14 '13 at 20:32

This is actually a decision made by the controller, not because there is/is not a model or view present. In your controller you can:

render json: @your_model

However you will quickly find that the default implementation of to_json (which is what is used internally, above) can be annoying hard to do exactly what you want. When you reach that point you can use RABL to create views that massage the JSON from your model(s) exactly as you want.

How to create a Rails model without an HTML view

2 Answers2