Why is ruby on rails returning null instead of json object

Question

I'm new to Rails so this is really basic and I'm sure I'm missing something simple. I'm trying to send some JSON to an action and get it to return a response in JSON. A simplified version of what I'm trying is below.

The jQuery I'm using:

var request = { 'voter': { 'voter_name': 'John', 'voter_email': '[email protected]'} };

var url = 'http://someip/Voters/create';

$.ajax({
    type: 'POST',
    url: url,
    data: request,
    success: function (data) { alert(data); },
    error: function (data) { alert(data); },
    dataType: 'json'
});

My action:

def create
    @voter = Voter.new(params[:voter])

    logger.info(@voter.to_json)

    render :json => @voter
end

It seems like this should be returning just fine, especially considering the console is showing the Voter object just fine:

Processing VotersController#create (for someip at 2010-08-17 21:19:51) [POST]  
Parameters: {"voter"=>{"voter_name"=>"John", "voter_email"=>"[email protected]"}}
{"voter":{"created_at":null,"updated_at":null,"voter_email":"[email protected]","voter_name":"John"}}
Completed in 11ms (View: 1, DB: 0) | 200 OK [http://someip/Voters/create]

The problem is that my alerts (or any other way I try to look at this data) are all showing me null. No object is being returned. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

what do you see if hit that action with curl? Is the response empty? — cam
– cam, Commented Aug 17, 2010 at 23:35
I'm stuck on a windows box at the moment so that's a very good question. If I access that action directly in my browser with a GET I'm seeing: {"voter":{"created_at":null,"updated_at":null,"voter_email":null,"voter_name":null}} — Jared
– Jared, Commented Aug 17, 2010 at 23:44
Is the url you're posting to on a different domain from the page doing the posting? — Nick Craver
– Nick Craver, Commented Aug 17, 2010 at 23:58
It's actually all by IP at this point. It will be different domains eventually. What's weird is the server is definitely getting the POST though since I've even had it write to sqlite. It's just not responding with anything. — Jared
– Jared, Commented Aug 18, 2010 at 0:00
Could you include a snippet from your development log that shows the POST request hitting your create action? — Ron DeVera
– Ron DeVera, Commented Aug 18, 2010 at 1:00

bjg · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-18 00:08:04Z

1

I think you need to convert the instance to JSON before rendering. Like this:

render :json => @voter.to_json

Just like you do in your debug log output.

answered Aug 18, 2010 at 0:08

bjg

7,4771 gold badge27 silver badges21 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Jared Over a year ago

Thanks for the response. I tried that and it didn't seem to make a difference.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Why is ruby on rails returning null instead of json object

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related