gistfile1.rb

# Patch to ActiveResource (based on the 2.3.2 codebase) for including the class name in the JSON generated.
# This is so the receiving end (Rails) can more easily manage the params hash.
#
# The current implementation sends the attributes as top-level JSON keys, which ends up on the other end as:
#  params[:some_attribute]
#  params[:some_other_attribute]
#  params[:something_else] # => not related to the posted JSON
#
# This makes it hard to do things like:
#  obj = SomeModel.new(params[:some_model])
#
# The patch changes this to include the ActiveResource class name in the JSON like ActiveRecord using
# an include_root_in_json option.
#
# With this patch, the receiving end (Rails) can now have a scoped params hash like:
#  params[:some_model][:some_attribute]
#
# And as a result be able to do things like:
#  obj = SomeModel.new(params[:some_model])
#
# As you normally do from a form post; Minimizing unnecessary code paths and a much DRYer code base overall.

# Current implementation (ActiveResource::Base)
def encode(options={})
  case self.class.format
    when ActiveResource::Formats[:xml]
      self.class.format.encode(attributes, {:root => self.class.element_name}.merge(options))
    else
      self.class.format.encode(attributes, options)
  end
end


# Patched (ActiveResource::Base)
cattr_accessor :include_root_in_json, :instance_writer => false
    
def encode(options={})
  case self.class.format
    when ActiveResource::Formats[:xml]
      self.class.format.encode(attributes, {:root => self.class.element_name}.merge(options))
    else
      if ActiveResource::Formats[:json] && include_root_in_json
        self.class.format.encode({self.json_class_name => attributes}, options)
      else
        self.class.format.encode(attributes, options)
      end
  end
end
  
def json_class_name
  @json_class_name ||= self.class.name.demodulize.underscore
end