Keeps your API lookin' good! No need for all that nested_attributes pollution in your request/response payloads

address_books_controller.rb

class V1::AddressBooksController < V1::BaseController
  def create
    @address_book = AddressBook.new address_book_params
    unless @address_book.save
      errors = @address_book.errors.to_hash(true)
      render status: 422, json: { errors: errors }
    end
  end

  private

  def address_book_params
    PrettyApi.with_nested_attributes  pretty_address_book_params,
                                      contacts: [:emails, :phones, :addresses]
  end

  def pretty_address_book_params
    params.permit(
      :device_install_id,
      contacts: [
        :local_id,
        :first_name,
        :last_name,
        :nickname,
        emails: [
          :value,
          :type
        ],
        phones: [
          :value,
          :type
        ],
        addresses: [
          :type,
          :street_address,
          :city,
          :state,
          :postal_code,
          :country
        ]
      ]
    )
  end
end

pretty_api.rb

module PrettyApi
  class << self
    def with_nested_attributes(params, attrs)
      return if params.blank?

      case attrs
      when Hash
        with_nested_hash_attributes(params, attrs)
      when Array
        with_nested_array_attributes(params, attrs)
      when String, Symbol
        unless params[attrs].blank?
          params["#{attrs}_attributes"] = params.delete attrs
        end
      end
      params
    end

    private

    def with_nested_hash_attributes(params, attrs)
      attrs.each do |k, v|
        with_nested_attributes params[k], v
        with_nested_attributes params, k
      end
    end

    def with_nested_array_attributes(params, attrs)
      params.each do |np|
        attrs.each do |v|
          with_nested_attributes np, v
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

I wrote a gem recently that does something similar and push things even further :)

https://github.com/jamesst20/pretty_api