How to get user data inside different model using Rails and Angular?

Question

I'm trying to build a activity stream feature in my Rails/Angular app, for that I'm using the activity steam gem. I've tracked my movie model, so when a user adds a movie that action gets tracked.

This the activities controller,

activities = PublicActivity::Activity.order("created_at desc")
render :json => activities

I've added 2 movies, and the json output from activities looks like this,

{"id":3,"trackable_id":6,"trackable_type":"Movie","owner_id":1,"owner_type":"User","key":"movie.create","parameters":{},"recipient_id":null,"recipient_type":null,"created_at":"2015-12-30T12:31:24.765Z","updated_at":"2015-12-30T12:31:24.765Z"},
{"id":2,"trackable_id":5,"trackable_type":"Movie","owner_id":1,"owner_type":"User","key":"movie.create","parameters":{},"recipient_id":null,"recipient_type":null,"created_at":"2015-12-30T11:55:06.766Z","updated_at":"2015-12-30T11:55:06.766Z"},

The owner_id is the id of the user who added the movie. In the railscast Ryan uses this code to display the name

<% @activities.each do |activity| %>
  <div class="activity">
    <%= link_to activity.owner.name, activity.owner if activity.owner %>
  </div>
<% end %>

But because I'm using Angular I obviously can't use this code.

So I'm looking for a method to combine the user model and the activity model so the user data is also displayed in the json output.

So the expected result would be something like this,

{"id":3,"trackable_id":6,"trackable_type":"Movie","owner_id":1","name":Kees de Boer,owner_type":"User","key":"movie.create","parameters":{},"recipient_id":null,"recipient_type":null,"created_at":"2015-12-30T12:31:24.765Z","updated_at":"2015-12-30T12:31:24.765Z"},
{"id":2,"trackable_id":5,"trackable_type":"Movie","owner_id":1","name":Kees de Boer,"owner_type":"User","key":"movie.create","parameters":{},"recipient_id":null,"recipient_type":null,"created_at":"2015-12-30T11:55:06.766Z","updated_at":"2015-12-30T11:55:06.766Z"},

Seyna · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-30 17:15:09Z

There are two ways to achieve what you want:

Method 1: — Including associations in a JSON Data

activities = PublicActivity::Activity.order("created_at desc")
render :json => activities.to_json( :include => { :user => { :only => :name } } )

and the result:

{ activity: { "id":3,"trackable_id":6,"trackable_type":"Movie", user: { name: "John Doe" } }

This method will bring user name into JSON data, it's super easy, though the structure is a little bit different from what you are looking for.

Method 2: — Override as_json in Model

In this method you have to play some tricks in the model.

def owner
  user.name
end

def as_json(options = { })
  super((options || { }).merge({
    :methods => [:owner]
  }))
end

Override as_json function in your Activity model, then just call

render :json => activities.as_json

Now you will see owner_name appended in the new JSON data as you want.

{ activity: { "id":3,"trackable_id":6,"trackable_type":"Movie", owner: "John Doe" }

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