How can I “pretty” format my JSON output in Ruby o

Question

I would like my JSON output in Ruby on Rails to be "pretty" or nicely formatted.

Right now, I call to_json and my JSON is all on one line. At times this can be difficult to see if there is a problem in the JSON output stream.

Is there way to configure or a method to make my JSON "pretty" or nicely formatted in Rails?

Answer 1

Using <pre> html code and pretty_generate is good trick:

<%
  require 'json'

  hash = JSON[{hey: "test", num: [{one: 1, two: 2, threes: [{three: 3, tthree: 33}]}]}.to_json] 
%>

<pre>
  <%=  JSON.pretty_generate(hash) %>
</pre>

Answer 2

If you (like I) find that the pretty_generate option built into Ruby's JSON library is not "pretty" enough, I recommend my own NeatJSON gem for your formatting.

To use it gem install neatjson and then use JSON.neat_generate instead of JSON.pretty_generate.

Like Ruby's pp it will keep objects and arrays on one line when they fit, but wrap to multiple as needed. For example:

{
  "navigation.createroute.poi":[
    {"text":"Lay in a course to the Hilton","params":{"poi":"Hilton"}},
    {"text":"Take me to the airport","params":{"poi":"airport"}},
    {"text":"Let's go to IHOP","params":{"poi":"IHOP"}},
    {"text":"Show me how to get to The Med","params":{"poi":"The Med"}},
    {"text":"Create a route to Arby's","params":{"poi":"Arby's"}},
    {
      "text":"Go to the Hilton by the Airport",
      "params":{"poi":"Hilton","location":"Airport"}
    },
    {
      "text":"Take me to the Fry's in Fresno",
      "params":{"poi":"Fry's","location":"Fresno"}
    }
  ],
  "navigation.eta":[
    {"text":"When will we get there?"},
    {"text":"When will I arrive?"},
    {"text":"What time will I get to the destination?"},
    {"text":"What time will I reach the destination?"},
    {"text":"What time will it be when I arrive?"}
  ]
}

It also supports a variety of formatting options to further customize your output. For example, how many spaces before/after colons? Before/after commas? Inside the brackets of arrays and objects? Do you want to sort the keys of your object? Do you want the colons to all be lined up?

Answer 3

Check out awesome_print. Parse the JSON string into a Ruby Hash, then display it with awesome_print like so:

require "awesome_print"
require "json"

json = '{"holy": ["nested", "json"], "batman!": {"a": 1, "b": 2}}'

ap(JSON.parse(json))

With the above, you'll see:

{
  "holy" => [
    [0] "nested",
    [1] "json"
  ],
  "batman!" => {
    "a" => 1,
    "b" => 2
  }
}

awesome_print will also add some color that Stack Overflow won't show you :)

Answer 4

If you are using RABL you can configure it as described here to use JSON.pretty_generate:

class PrettyJson
  def self.dump(object)
    JSON.pretty_generate(object, {:indent => "  "})
  end
end

Rabl.configure do |config|
  ...
  config.json_engine = PrettyJson if Rails.env.development?
  ...
end

A problem with using JSON.pretty_generate is that JSON schema validators will no longer be happy with your datetime strings. You can fix those in your config/initializers/rabl_config.rb with:

ActiveSupport::TimeWithZone.class_eval do
  alias_method :orig_to_s, :to_s
  def to_s(format = :default)
    format == :default ? iso8601 : orig_to_s(format)
  end
end

Answer 5

# example of use:
a_hash = {user_info: {type: "query_service", e_mail: "[e-mail]", phone: "[phone]"}, cars_makers: ["bmw", "mitsubishi"], car_models: [bmw: {model: "1er", year_mfc: 2006}, mitsubishi: {model: "pajero", year_mfc: 1997}]}
pretty_html = a_hash.pretty_html

# include this module to your libs:
module MyPrettyPrint
    def pretty_html indent = 0
        result = ""
        if self.class == Hash
            self.each do |key, value|
                result += "#{key}
: #{[Array, Hash].include?(value.class) ? value.pretty_html(indent+1) : value}
"
            end
        elsif self.class == Array
            result = "[#{self.join(', ')}]"
        end
        "#{result}"
    end

end

class Hash
    include MyPrettyPrint
end

class Array
    include MyPrettyPrint
end

Answer 6

Use the pretty_generate() function, built into later versions of JSON. For example:

require 'json'
my_object = { :array => [1, 2, 3, { :sample => "hash"} ], :foo => "bar" }
puts JSON.pretty_generate(my_object)

Which gets you:

{
  "array": [
    1,
    2,
    3,
    {
      "sample": "hash"
    }
  ],
  "foo": "bar"
}