rails 3 doesn't render format xml for string

Question

so i'm trying to send xml back from my controller..

render xml: ['hello world']

correctly gives me:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<strings type="array">
  <string>hello world</string>
</strings>

however

render xml: 'hello world'

gives xml headers but the body is just:

hello world

which is not xml format.

bug?

I don't think it's a bug. Every XML document needs a root element, and I don't string is a valid option for a root. — Max
– Max, Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 21:08
I think you can just do something like render xml: "<response>string content</response>" — Ismael
– Ismael, Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 21:26

jordanpg · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-03 21:24:49Z

2

From the API documentation:

When a request comes in, for example for an XML response, three steps happen:

1) the responder searches for a template at people/index.xml;

2) if the template is not available, it will invoke #to_xml on the given resource;

3) if the responder does not respond_to :to_xml, call #to_format on it.

See: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/Responder.html

In Rails, Arrays respond to to_xml but Strings do not.

answered Aug 3, 2012 at 21:24

jordanpg

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2 Comments

ggez44 Over a year ago

Thanks, that makes sense. What's best practice here then? All xml responses should be wrapped in an arbitrary root as ismaelga suggested? Though I'm still not convinced this is expected behavior.. <string>hello world</string> sounds like very valid xml to me

Archonic Over a year ago

What if you're doing some simple ajax and you just want to return a string to the DOM. Does convention really state that I should write a new partial file and render the partial?

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