Tag Archives: json

Mar 13 2012
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Ruby

How to get domain objects in javascript with rails (Part 1)

In continuing with my side project relating to maps and restaurants, I wanted to get things a little more interactive.  The next step is to combine all my restaurants I have the in database, and put them on the map.  To do this though, I needed to get the Restaurant Model objects into javascript so I could dynamically add them to as markers on the map.

The first step was to define a new controller action in my “app/controllers/restaurants_controller.rb” file.  For now, this will just find the first item in the DB and render it as a JSON object.  In the long run, this will return a list of recommended restaurants:

  def recommendations
    @restaurant = Restaurant.find(:first)
    render :json => @restaurant
  end

Next, I needed to make that controller accessible via a URL.  My initial idea is to open up the URL like “/restaurants/recommendations” to return the list.  I modified the “config/routes.rb” file, and restarted the server:

  match "/restaurants/recommendations" => "restaurants#recommendations"

If I point the browser to this URL, I see the JSON I was expecting to see.  In this case, it is returning the restaurant “Watts Grocery”:

{
"name":"Watts Grocery",
"city":null,
"created_at":"2012-03-12T02:08:29Z",
"description":null,
"id":4,
"lattitude":"36.0164193",
"longitude":"-78.9189592",
"openmap_id":266302295,
"state":null,
"updated_at":"2012-03-12T02:08:29Z"
}

Next up, I’ll show how to make a call in javascript to get this JSON string and parse it into an object so it can be displayed on the map.

 

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