ActiveModel::Serializers VS jbuilder

Hey folks, I've been using FastJsonapi::ObjectSerializer in past projects, but it is now deprecated and it's successor is "in maintenance mode! ". The og serializer had no release since 2015.

Further reading: Active Model Serializers Github

In order to use our serializers, first we must install the gem into our gem file. we can do that by first grabbing our "Active Model Serializers" gem file from "https://rubygems.org/gems/active_model_serializers/versions/0.10.13". We will copy the gem from this website and paste it into our gem file in our application like so

Today I thought I'd run through a few of the powerful things that the ActiveModel::Serializer gem brings to the table when used in a Ruby on Rails application. Sure, there are faster alternatives, but AMS is the first one I learned how to use, and thus it holds a special place in my heart. Quick question before we dive too much deeper, though...

AMS

ActiveModelSerializers to build JSON views

Might be overkill for your situation but I generally use https://github.com/rails-api/active_model_serializers for my projects. Otherwise just build the hash you are sending back to the frontend with standard code.

On the other hand, we have Active Model Serializers. This gem is also deprecated but has another stable version 0.10. I also found Blueprinter gem. I've never used it before and don't know its limitations.

# Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma] gem "puma", "~> 5.0" # Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder] # gem "jbuilder" gem 'rack-cors' gem "devise" gem "jsonapi-serializer" gem 'devise-jwt' gem 'active_model_serializers' gem 'followability' gem 'dotenv-rails', groups: [:development, :test, :production] gem 'sprockets' # Use Redis adapter to run Action Cable in production # gem "redis", "~> 4.0" # Use Kredis to get higher-level data types in Redis [https://github.com/rails/kredis] # gem "kredis" # Use Active Model has_secure_password [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_model_basics.html#securepassword] # gem "bcrypt", "~> 3.1.7" # Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ] # Reduces boot times through caching; required in config/boot.rb gem "bootsnap", require: false # Use Active Storage variants [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_storage_overview.html#transforming-images] # gem "image_processing", "~> 1.2" # Use Rack CORS for handling Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), making cross-origin AJAX possible # gem "rack-cors" group :development, :test do # See https://guides.rubyonrails.org/debugging_rails_applications.html#debugging-with-the-debug-gem gem "debug", platforms: %i[ mri mingw x64_mingw ] end group :development do gem "sqlite3", "~> 1.4" # Speed up commands on slow machines / big apps [https://github.com/rails/spring] # gem "spring" end group :production do gem 'pg' end

source "https://rubygems.org" git_source(:github) { |repo| "https://github.com/#{repo}.git" } ruby "3.1.0" # Bundle edge Rails instead: gem "rails", github: "rails/rails", branch: "main" gem "rails", "~> 7.0.4", ">= 7.0.4.2" # The original asset pipeline for Rails [https://github.com/rails/sprockets-rails] gem "sprockets-rails" # Use sqlite3 as the database for Active Record gem "sqlite3", "~> 1.4" # Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma] gem "puma", "~> 5.0" # Use JavaScript with ESM import maps [https://github.com/rails/importmap-rails] gem "importmap-rails" # Hotwire's SPA-like page accelerator [https://turbo.hotwired.dev] gem "turbo-rails" # Hotwire's modest JavaScript framework [https://stimulus.hotwired.dev] gem "stimulus-rails" # Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder] gem "jbuilder" gem "mongoid" gem "mongoid-grid_fs" gem 'bootstrap', '~> 5.2.2' #sourced from https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap-rubygem gem 'rack-cors' # Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ] # Reduces boot times through caching; required in config/boot.rb gem "bootsnap", require: false

For the longest time Rails was also incredibly slow at generating JSON, of all things. JBuilder [1] was a few orders of magnitude slower than using .to_json directly or other libraries.

[1] https://github.com/rails/jbuilder, maintained by DHH and the Rails team. AFAIR, the "official" JSON serialization DSL.

It's a builder DSL for protobuf messages, similar to jbuilder. If you ever used jbuilder, this would be really familiar, but there are small nuances of protobuf to be aware off :)

# Bundle edge Rails instead: gem "rails", github: "rails/rails", branch: "main" gem "rails", "~> 7.0.4" # The original asset pipeline for Rails [https://github.com/rails/sprockets-rails] gem "sprockets-rails" # Use sqlite3 as the database for Active Record gem "sqlite3", "~> 1.4" # Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma] gem "puma", "~> 5.0" # Use JavaScript with ESM import maps [https://github.com/rails/importmap-rails] gem "importmap-rails" # Hotwire's SPA-like page accelerator [https://turbo.hotwired.dev] gem "turbo-rails" # Hotwire's modest JavaScript framework [https://stimulus.hotwired.dev] gem "stimulus-rails" # Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder] gem "jbuilder" # Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ] # Reduces boot times through caching; required in config/boot.rb gem "bootsnap", require: false # Use Sass to process CSS # gem "sassc-rails" # Use Active Storage variants [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_storage_overview.html#transforming-images] # gem "image_processing", "~> 1.2" group :development, :test do # See https://guides.rubyonrails.org/debugging_rails_applications.html#debugging-with-the-debug-gem gem "debug", platforms: %i[ mri mingw x64_mingw ] end group :development do # Use console on exceptions pages [https://github.com/rails/web-console] gem "web-console" # Add speed badges [https://github.com/MiniProfiler/rack-mini-profiler] # gem "rack-mini-profiler" # Speed up commands on slow machines / big apps [https://github.com/rails/spring] # gem "spring" end group :test do # Use system testing [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/testing.html#system-testing] gem "capybara" gem "selenium-webdriver" gem "webdrivers" end

Ohh I see. The magic happens on that format method. If that becomes a pain to maintain, consider checking jbuilder out.

Try to include ActionView::Rendering in your controller. I had this problem with jbuilder and it was the workaround https://github.com/rails/jbuilder/issues/346

Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder]

jbuilder

gem "rails", "~> 7.0.0" # The original asset pipeline for Rails [https://github.com/rails/sprockets-rails] gem "sprockets-rails" # Use postgresql as the database for Active Record gem "pg", "~> 1.1" # Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma] gem "puma", "~> 5.0" # Use JavaScript with ESM import maps [https://github.com/rails/importmap-rails] gem "importmap-rails" # Hotwire's SPA-like page accelerator [https://turbo.hotwired.dev] gem "turbo-rails" # Hotwire's modest JavaScript framework [https://stimulus.hotwired.dev] gem "stimulus-rails" # Use Tailwind CSS [https://github.com/rails/tailwindcss-rails] gem "tailwindcss-rails" # Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder] gem "jbuilder" gem "redis", "~> 4.0"