rabl

# RABL #

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RABL (Ruby API Builder Language) is a Rails and [Padrino](http://padrinorb.com) ruby templating system for generating JSON, XML, MessagePack, PList and BSON.
When using the ActiveRecord 'to_json' method, I find myself wanting a more expressive and powerful solution for generating APIs.
This is especially true when the JSON representation is complex or doesn't match the exact schema defined within the database.

In particular, I want to easily:

 * Create arbitrary nodes named based on combining data in an object
 * Pass arguments to methods and store the result as a child node
 * Render partial templates and inherit to reduce code duplication
 * Rename or alias attributes to change the name from the model
 * Append attributes from a child into a parent node
 * Include nodes only if a certain condition has been met

Anyone who has tried the 'to_json' method used in ActiveRecord for generating a JSON response has felt the pain of this restrictive approach.
RABL is a general templating system created to solve these problems by approaching API response generation in an entirely new way.

RABL at the core is all about adhering to MVC principles by deferring API data representations to the **view** layer of your application.
For a breakdown of common misconceptions about RABL, please check out our guide to
[understanding RABL](https://github.com/nesquena/rabl/wiki/Understanding-RABL) which can help clear up any confusion about this project.

## Breaking Changes ##

 * v0.19.0 requires ActiveSupport 6.1 or newer (and so Rails 6.1 or newer under Rails). Apps on an older Rails or
   ActiveSupport can stay on 0.18.x.

 * v0.18.0 requires Ruby 2.7 or newer (older Rubies can stay on 0.17.0). Every cache key changes once: expect a cold
   cache after upgrading. It also fixes several long-standing output bugs in ways that can change existing output. Check the
   [CHANGELOG](https://github.com/nesquena/rabl/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md) before upgrading.

 * v0.9.0 (released Oct 14, 2013) changes the [default node name for certain associations](https://github.com/nesquena/rabl/issues/505)
   especially around STI models. You might want to verify for any breakages as a result and
   be more explicit by specifying an alias i.e `@users => :users`

 * v0.8.0 (released Feb 14, 2013) removes multi_json dependency and
   relies on Oj (or JSON) as the json parser. Simplifies code, removes a dependency
   but you might want to remove any references to MultiJson.

 * v0.6.14 (released June 28, 2012) requires the use of render_views
   with RSpec to test templates. Otherwise, the controller will simply
   pass through the render