Include associated model when rendering JSON in Rails

Question

Right now I have this line:

 render json: @programs, :except => [:created_at, :updated_at]

However, since a Program belongs_to a Company I would like to show the Company name instead of the Company Id.

How can I include the company name when rendering Programs?

Answer 1

Something like this should work:

render :json => @programs, :include => {:insurer => {:only => :name}}, :except => [:created_at, :updated_at]

Answer 2

i was getting the same "can't clone Symbol file" error while rendering json with includes from a controller method. avoided it like so:

render :json => @list.to_json( :include => [:tasks] )

Answer 3

You can also do this at the model level.

program.rb

  def as_json(options={})
    super(:except => [:created_at, :updated_at]
          :include => {
            :company => {:only => [:name]}
          }
    )
  end
end

Now in your controller:

render json: @programs