rake task to convert existing ruby roles to json. place file outside of roles and run.

chef-roles-to-json-task.rb

# ADD this to Rakefile and run it by issuing rake roles:to_json
require 'chef'

root_dir = File.dirname(__FILE__)
ROLE_DIR = File.join(root_dir, 'roles')
namespace :roles do 
	desc "Convert ruby roles from ruby to json, creating/overwriting json files."
	task :to_json do 
	  Dir.glob(File.join(ROLE_DIR, '*.rb')) do |rb_file|
	    role = Chef::Role.new
	    role.from_file(rb_file)
	    json_file = rb_file.sub(/\.rb$/,'.json') 
	    File.open(json_file, 'w'){|f| f.write(JSON.pretty_generate(role))}
	  end
	end
end


# relates to Chef roles. see http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Roles