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Rails and XML

Answer 1

+1 A:

In your controller, you'll want to render the content as xml. Something like:

def show
  respond_to do |format|
    format.html
    format.xml { render :xml => my_function_that_outputs_xml }
  end
end

Aaron Hinni 2009-07-02 20:03:59

Answer 2

+4 A:

If you want to write XML files with Rails, you might probably want to swith from ERB to Builder template handler.

If you are working with ActiveRecord objects, you can also use the handy :xml option when specifying rendering option.

def index
  @records = Model.all
  respond_to do |format|
    format.html
    format.xml { render :xml => @records }
  end
end

Simone Carletti 2009-07-02 20:06:05

As @weppos points out make sure you rename `genxml.xml.erb` to `genxml.xml.builder` or `genxml.xml.rxml`

Scott 2009-07-02 21:17:11

weppos, you beat me to it, that's the anwser I would have given

marcgg 2009-07-03 17:04:57

There's nothing wrong with generating XML using ERB (or HAML, or any other templating engine you prefer), though.

Greg Campbell 2009-07-05 20:22:49

Answer 3

A:

I'm currently doing exactly what you want without a problem. ERB generation of XML is certainly one of the most convenient methods, especially if the output is predominantly the XML template. It also makes it possible to do neat tricks like render partials with collections.

But I know this didn't used to work properly (had to use builders), however I can see that at least from Rails 2.3.5 onwards the ERB approach seems to work fine.

e.g.

class MyController < ApplicationController
  def genxml
    respond_to do |format|
      format.xml 
    end
  end
end

Then genxml.xml.erb produces a valid XML file, and you can even do tricks like:

<expensesAC>
<%= render :partial => 'expenses/cashflow', :collection => @expenses-%>
</expensesAC>

Where expenses/_cashflow.xml.erb is something like:

<cashflow>
  <month><%= cashflow.month %></month>
  <cash><%= cashflow.cash %></cash>
  <projected><%= cashflow.projected %></projected>
</cashflow>

NB: the interleaved <expensesAC> and <cashflow> in your example may indicate there's another problem lurking in your XML generation logic.

tardate 2010-08-13 07:23:31

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