JSON API adapter word separator issue

[hugopeixoto]

I'm using the JSON API adapter with ember-data and I'm having a small compatibility issue.

The new JSON API adapter currently does not transform the attribute keys in any way. I have an attribute with an underscore in my model, it will be left untouched. ember-data/jsonapi looks up attribute names with dash-separated words. This means that these two adapters cannot be used together without changing one of them.

The jsonapi spec does not specify that words must be dash-separated, but it does recommend it (#534 (comment), reference). ember-data follows this recommendation (emberjs/data#3455).

It would be nice to have a way to use the adapter in the recommended way.
Should this transformation be handled specifically by the jsonapi adapter?
Or should AMS provide a general key transformation option (this feature dropped on 0.10.x: #534)?

EDIT:

My current workaround was to define a base serializer, from which the actual serializers inherit:

class BaseSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
  def attributes *args
    Hash[super.map do |key, value|
      [key.to_s.dasherize.to_sym, value]
    end]
  end
end

[hhff]

👍 I'm having this issue also. @hugopeixoto - did you find a way around this for the time being?

[hhff]

IMO - Ember Data should handle both cases, however....

AMS should provide a dasherize option also - as the spec recommends it. Rails is all about underscores, so we'd have to do something like this:

attributes :'full-name'

def full-name
  object.full_name
end

end

Not sure if this would even parse...

[hugopeixoto]

@hhff: There's a :key option in the #attribute (singular) method which you could use:

attribute :full_name, key: "full-name"

I noticed that I forgot to add my current fix to the issue. I have edited the original post with a potential workaround, if anyone runs into this problem.

[hhff]

thanks @hugopeixoto ! seems like this should also be a global config, however...

[bf4]

@hhff ED does, if you're using the AMS adapter...

[hhff]

Thanks @bf4, thinking more about the new JSONAPI adapter, as AMS adapter is being removed from the official ember data package in favour of it. The suggestions in the above ember data thread are fine tho.

I do think ams should handle this transform for us tho.

[bf4]

Yeah, though we'd probably want it to be optional since people might still use AMS without a JS frontend and Rails-world still prefers underscores to dashes or camelcase.

[joaomdmoura]

Thanks @bf4, thinking more about the new JSONAPI adapter, as AMS adapter is being removed from the official ember data package

@hhff is it? 😅 I should stay more tuned into this!

We are kind moving away from global configs, but is seems a good case.
In the order hand, I checked with the JSON API folks and it is indeed the recommended. It seems to me it should be the default format, but I need to give it some thought.

Anyway, I agree with @hhff we should handle this.

[hhff]

<3

On Thu, 2 Jul 2015 at 7:40 am João Moura notifications@github.com wrote:

Thanks @bf4 https://github.com/bf4, thinking more about the new JSONAPI
adapter, as AMS adapter is being removed from the official ember data
package

@hhff https://github.com/hhff is it? [image: 😅] I should
stay more tuned into this!

We are kind moving away from global configs, but is seems a good case.
In the order hand, I checked with the JSON API folks and it is indeed the
recommended. It seems to me it should be the default format, but I need to
give it some thought.

Anyway, I agree with @hhff https://github.com/hhff we should handle
this.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#974 (comment)
.

[bf4]

Additional references: #507 #699

[hhff]

I was thinking a bit more about this.

In my case - I'm happy for AMS to not handle this. AMS has no control of serializing attributes on the way back into the application - so it means that there has to be two layers of serialization / deserialization / normalization, whatever you want to call it, just to dasherize keys.

IMO, the cleaner way to handle this is on the client (Ember makes this trivial). The Rails API "line" should be neat and clean - it should consume and deliver the same format that's in the DB wherever possible, and for Rails, dashes are a no-go.

[joaomdmoura]

@hhff FYI, once we finish it, there will be no need of two layers anymore, AMS will do the magic. 😄

I partially agree with you, but for me is more about follow JSON API conventions, if this is what ppl expect when using JSON API, the adapter should provide it. But in the other hand, as you said, dashes are a no-go for Rails. Still not sure about it.

[krzkrzkrz]

I'm in the same scenario. Using Ember CLI and the JSON API adapter. I've also configured active_model_serializers to use the JSON API format. i.e. setting ActiveModel::Serializer.config.adapter = :json_api in a Rails initializer.

I understand Rails is all about underscores. But if ASM is set to :json_api shouldn't it follow the convention of JSON API?

At http://jsonapi.org/format/#document-resource-object-attributes search for first-name. The JSON API format dictates that attributes be delimited by dashes (-). So even if Rails users expect underscores (which is still fine) the output should still be in dashes.

For now, the solution suggested by the OP is a workaround:

  def attributes *args
    Hash[super.map do |key, value|
      [key.to_s.dasherize.to_sym, value]
    end]
  end

[zaeleus]

It's goofy that the JSON API spec recommends hyphenating names, especially when this is a disallowed character for names in most languages.

I definitely do think it's right to follow the spec recommendation though. AMS should default to hyphenated names, with a global option to customize the transformation. Even though, yes, Ruby and Rails use the convention of snake case, the data exchange format shouldn't be restricted to that.