emberjs JSON format handling - json

Question

I have an Employee model in my emberjs app, and I am trying to load the Employees content using a RESTful web service which come in the following format:
{
"Result": [
{
"EmployeeId": "1",
"EmployeeName": "Mark Smith",
"Active": 0,
"Dept": "Sales"
},
{
"EmployeeId": "2",
"EmployeeName": "John Smith",
"Active": 1,
"Dept": "Sales"
},
{
"EmployeeId": "3",
"EmployeeName": "Michael Smith",
"Active": 1,
"Dept": "Administration"
}
],
"ResultCount": 3
}
Here I am facing 3 problems:
Is it possible to read this JSON format and add it to the Employee model, I understand that "Result" should have been "Employees" but I have no control over the return JSON format so if it is possible to use "Result" that will be great. Any example on doing so is highly appreciated.
How can I handle "ResultCount"? Is there a way I can read it as part of Employee model?
How I can read "Active" in the app View as "Active" / "Not Active" instead of 0 or 1?
Thanks for your time

Answer 1

As pointed out by jasonpgignac, you'll need to write a custom serailizer/deserializer to get the data into ember-data.
Once you have your data loaded ResultCount isn't required. You should use the 'length' property on the returned collection.
As part of your serializer you'll want to convert 0/1 to false/true in your model. You can them add a property like:
activeLabel: ( ->
if #get('active')
'Active'
else
'Not Active'
).property('active')
and use this property in your templates.
As requested, here's a sample class from a project of mine:
App.StudentSerializer = DS.ActiveModelSerializer.extend
serializeBelongsTo: (record, json, relationship) ->
key = relationship.key
if key is 'attendance'
#serializeAttendance(record, json)
else
json["#{key}_id"] = record.get("#{key}.id")
serializeAttendance: (record, json) ->
attendance = record.get('attendance')
json['attendance'] = {}
['monday', 'tuesday', 'wednesday', 'thursday', 'friday'].forEach( (day) =>
json['attendance'][day] = attendance.get(day)
)
serializeHasMany: (record, json, relationship) ->
key = relationship.key
jsonKey = Ember.String.singularize(key) + '_ids'
json[jsonKey] = []
record.get(key).forEach( (item) ->
json[jsonKey].push(item.get('id'))
)
My store.coffee looks like:
App.Store = DS.Store.extend
# Override the default adapter with the `DS.ActiveModelAdapter` which
# is built to work nicely with the ActiveModel::Serializers gem.
adapter: '_ams'
App.ApplicationSerializer = DS.ActiveModelSerializer.extend()
You'll probably want to use the JsonAdapter and extend it if you don't have any control over the backend. As I said below, I haven't done deserialising but there should be the necessary hooks for you to convert into the format required by ember-data.