ActiveRecord::Base.include_root_in_json only applies to root model and not to collection/children of that model..

This may or may not be an issue but I would like to have clarification. Both Rails 3.0 and edge rails behave similarly when providing the ActiveRecord::Base.include_root_in_json = true setting when rendering an active record model with includes.

The behavior I am describing is as follows when ActiveRecord::Base.include_root_in_json = true:

Currently:

{"account": {"id":"123","users":[{"id":1},{"id":2},{"id":3}]}}

Expected (thought the way it should behave):

{"account": {"id":"123","users":[{"user":{"id":1}},{"user":{"id":2}},{"user":{"id":3}}]}}

I have been able to get this to work by monkey patching my current code but I don't want to implement something that is not a standard.

So if someone from the rails team could describe why the children collection models aren't rooted with the model name as well that would help me choose the correct implementation path. Bare in mind also that the xml serialization does have "user" nodes per users. That may be because json and xml are inherently different, but clarification would definitely help.

If the outcome is that this behavior needs to be changed I can submit a patch.

Thanks,

Nirmit Patel