Postgres Data to XML

Question

Does anyone know any good methods for converting database entries into XML?

I.e. if i have a table named "Users" with fields "first_name", "age", "last_name", I'd like to convert the table to:

<Users>
  <first_name>Papa</first_name>
  <age>50</age>
  <last_name>John</last_name>
</Users>

Answer 1

In PostgreSQL you could it like this:

SELECT table_to_xml('users', true, false, '');

Or

SELECT query_to_xml('SELECT * FROM users', true, false, '');

There are other options as well, just check the manual.

Answer 2

This is a question independent of the DB it can be done with any DB supported by ActiveRecord.

User.find(some_id).to_xml(:except => [:id,:created_at,:updated_at])

The :except => [:id,:created_at,:updated_at] removes the Rails default columns from the XML output.

There is an interesting blog post about this matter: http://ryandaigle.com/articles/2007/4/13/what-s-new-in-edge-rails-a-more-flexible-to_xml