Rails shouldn't output invalid JSON by default

rubyonrails-core
1

Please check out this ticket (which would explain almost everything): http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/8762

So basically, Rails to_json methods produces invalid JSON out of the box as it doesn't quote all hash keys. This is valid JSON:

{   "id": 6589,   "code": "SIN",   "name": "Singapore" }

This is not (Rails' JSON encoders do this):

{   id: 6589,   code: "SIN",   name: "Singapore" }

I'm sure many of us would like to see Rails start producing valid JSON by default instead of having to change a module attribute. I think it's absolutely important that Rails outputs valid JSON by default. Would definitely be imperative prior to the Rails 2.0 release, especially with the attempt to achieve feature parity between XML and JSON for encoding, decoding and serialization (see changesets http://dev.rubyonrails.org/changeset/7519 and http://dev.rubyonrails.org/changeset/7518).

If there's a historical reason for it, can someone shed some light? Worst case is that Rails 2.0 goes out with a big fat JSON warning about the invalid JSON by default :wink:

Oh and the easiest solution: set   ActiveSupport::JSON.unquote_hash_key_identifiers = false by default in ActiveSupport::JSON (http://dev.rubyonrails.org/browser/ trunk/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb).

Cheers, Chu Yeow

2

I support this +1

3

Hey eggie,

You'd be glad to know that this has been fixed! :slight_smile: Edge Rails (and Rails 2.0) will emit valid JSON by default now.

Cheers, Chu Yeow