using plain ole' Ruby as a Rails TemplateHandler

environment.rb

...
require 'rb_template_handler'

index.jqa.rb

@people.map do |person|
  suggestion = person.full_name
  data = { :id => person.id }.to_json
  "#{suggestion}|#{data}"
end.join("\n")

mime_types.rb

Mime::Type.register_alias "text/plain", :jqa # JQuery Autocomplete

people_controller.rb

class PeopleController < ActionController::Base
  def index
    respond_to do |format|
      format.jqa
    end
  end
end

rb_template_handler.rb

class RbTemplateHandler < ActionView::TemplateHandler
  include ActionView::TemplateHandlers::Compilable if defined?(ActionView::TemplateHandlers::Compilable)

  def compile(template)
    template.source
  end

end

ActionView::Template.register_template_handler(:rb, RbTemplateHandler)