Using rails jbuilder file in multiple locations

Question

I am building a rails app and I need to be able to send json from an api endpoint for and android app im building.

I can currently get the json I need from a different controller but I am trying to condense all my api calls to one api controller.

my JBuilder file looks like this

json.array!(@rivers) do |river|
  json.extract! river, :id, :name, :section, :difficulty, :cfs, :details, :state, :put_in, :take_out, :picture
  json.has_alert has_alert? river
end

It is currently getting used from my rivers controller index action

  def index
    if !params[:commit].nil?
      @rivers = search params
      if @rivers.nil?
        @rivers = []
      end
    else
      @rivers = River.where(approved: true)
    end
  end

I have an identical copy of the JBuilder file to be used by the api river action

  def rivers
    river_list = search params
    if river_list.nil?
      river_list = []
    end
  end

I want to be able to render the custom json the the jbuilder file gets me. I have been able to render json from the api controller using

render json: river_list

But it gives me more information that I don't actually want. Is there anyway to render custom json without using the jbuilder. The important part is that i need a json array

Answer 1

If you want to render the specific jbuilder view file, you can call it like this

render json: "name_of_the_jbuilder_file"

So your rivers method would look like this

  def rivers
    river_list = search params
    if river_list.nil?
      river_list = []
    end
    render template: "jbuilder_filename"
  end

Take note that your jbuilder file needs the instance varialbe @rivers , but the rivers method don't have the @rivers instance variable so this would fail, you should instantiate the instance variable first to render the json successfully.

Edit

Sorry, please use render template: "jbuilder_filename" instead of render json