#2049 to_xml nil => true attribute should not appear when I skip types - Ruby on Rails

Type	To find
responsible:me	tickets assigned to you
tagged:"@high"	tickets tagged @high
milestone:next	tickets in the upcoming milestone
state:invalid	tickets with the state invalid
created:"last week"	tickets created last week
sort:number, importance, updated	tickets sorted by #, importance or updated
Combine keywords for powerful searching.
Use advanced searching »

This project is archived and is in readonly mode.

#2049 ✓wontfix

to_xml nil => true attribute should not appear when I skip types

Reported by Joshua White | February 23rd, 2009 @ 12:53 AM

When you run the to_xml method on a hash and an attribute contains no data or nil, rails, by default is rendering an attribute within the xml tah :nil => true.

I seems to me that this is inconsistent when I add the option :skip_types => true to add a 'type' tag that says nil.

The other thought is adding another options which says skip_nil_attribute or something.

For now I am just doing a gsub to remove it, but that seems wrong.

all = ExamRecord.all.to_xml(:include => [:patient], :skip_types => true)

....

−

person st

<date-of-birth>1134-11-11</date-of-birth> <demographic-notes>sfggsdfgs</demographic-notes> <first-name>Person</first-name> 82 <last-name>Personson</last-name> <middle-name>P</middle-name> bens123456 8989898989 <phone-evening>8988989898</phone-evening> 0 <social-security-number>123456789</social-security-number> * <zip-code nil="true"/> **

Comments and changes to this ticket

CancelProfileIsBroken August 5th, 2009 @ 01:53 PM
- Tag set to “bugmash”
Dan Pickett August 8th, 2009 @ 10:24 PM
-1 verified that this occurs in 2-3-stable

:skip_types is to remove data types while nil="true" indicates that the value is nil. The desired behavior does not match the means to do it. Perhaps passing a different option is better (:explicit_nils or something?)

This would likely break a lot of legacy code, no?
You flagged this item as spam.
Josh Nichols August 10th, 2009 @ 04:00 AM
I agree with Dan that skipping nils when you specify :skip_types seems to break the intention of it, which is to not include the type attribute with the class of the object. There'd also be the concern of backwards compatibility.

I'd +1 an extra option for this though, ie :skip_nil_values
You flagged this item as spam.
Hugo Peixoto August 10th, 2009 @ 06:57 AM
-1 for the requested behaviour for skip_types. I'm with both Dan and Josh on this one.

I could add a skip_nil option to both activemodel and activesupport. Should I?
You flagged this item as spam.
Derander August 10th, 2009 @ 07:02 AM
-1, verified behavior in 2-3-stable... I agree with Dan. I think that :skip_nils is a good idea Hugo, but it would probably be better as a new ticket.
Jeremy Kemper August 10th, 2009 @ 07:06 AM
- Assigned user cleared.
- Tag cleared.
- State changed from “new” to “wontfix”
- Milestone cleared.
You flagged this item as spam.
Joshua White September 16th, 2009 @ 01:11 AM
Does this mean that the ability to not include the nil=>'true' is left to the individual to do themselves? Should I submit a patch? I am for adding a skip_nils attribute as well.
You flagged this item as spam.
bshand January 27th, 2010 @ 11:49 AM
Ticket #1480 already proposes a skip_nils attribute (including patches), but was rejected as invalid.