ActiveRecord_Relation serialization

[nesaulov]

Right now objects that are created from methods that return ActiveRecord_Relation (like #where) can not be surrealized:

User.where(id: 3).surrealize
# => NoMethodError: undefined method `surrealize' for #<User::ActiveRecord_Relation:0x007f90ae569758>

We need to have some kind of schema delegation to the initial object here.

[nesaulov]

I guess we have two ways here:

1. Monkey-patch ActiveRecord_Relation so it has #surrealize on an instance.
2. Force users to use Surrealist#surrealize(instance) directly.

I personally prefer second option, because of absence of monkey-patching and because ActiveRecord is not the only ORM out there, so we will have to monkey-patch a lot of things.

[AlessandroMinali]

Could we just map back the surrealization of each element:

    # something like this 🤷🤷 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    def surrealize(instance:, camelize:, include_root:)
      return instance.map { |i| surrealize(i,camelize, include_root) } if instance.respond_to?(:each) #
      ::JSON.dump(build_schema(instance: instance, camelize: camelize, include_root: include_root))
    end

I think this produces similar behaviour as ActiveModel::Serializer.

[nesaulov]

@AlessandroMinali yeah, you are right, it's a third option and it looks alright. I'll think about it for a while.

[nesaulov]

Actually, there is the same downside as in the first option - we'll have to monkey-patch Enumerable and else, because otherwise NoMehtodError is thrown:

User.where(id: 3).surrealize
# => NoMethodError: undefined method `surrealize' for #<User::ActiveRecord_Relation:0x007f90ae569758>

[AlessandroMinali]

Hmm, right.

I guess a simple solution is to introduce a new method like mentioned in the other issue which is just a wrapper to call"

return instance.map { |i| surrealize(i,camelize, include_root) } if instance.respond_to?(:each) #

Would be nice if it just worked though without a separate method.

[AlessandroMinali]

Here are monkey-patch attempt and a #surrealize_collection methods WIPs to compare.

Both have specs for AR, ROM, Datamapper and Sequel.

[nesaulov]

thanks, @AlessandroMinali! I think #surrealize_collection way is much better than monkey-patching, so we can continue to work on that one. Am I right that the API you are planning to introduce is Surrealist.surrealize_collection(collection)?

[AlessandroMinali]

Yes, that's correct @nesaulov, with the ability to specific camelize and include root etc. if they so choose.