Here is the specific XML I ultimately need:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<customer>
<email>[email protected]</email>
<first_name>Joe</first_name>
<last_name>Blow</last_name>
</customer>
But say I have a controller (Rails) that is sending the data to a method, I'd prefer to send it as a hash, like so:
:first_name => 'Joe',
:last_name => 'Blow',
:email => '[email protected]'
So, how can I convert the hash to that XML format?
If this data is a model, look at overriding to_xml.
Otherwise, Builder is a good option.
I would suggest a gem like XmlSimple which provides this kind of facility.
ActiveSupport adds a to_xml method to Hash, so you can get pretty close to what you are looking for with this:
my_hash = { :first_name => 'Joe', :last_name => 'Blow', :email => '[email protected]'}
my_hash.to_xml(:root => 'customer')
And end up with:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<customer>
<last-name>Blow</last-name>
<first-name>Joe</first-name>
<email>[email protected]</email>
</customer>
Note that the underscores are converted to dashes.
I did a short presentation about exactly that topic at my university a while back. Here are the slides (Interesting part starts at >= page 37)