/ Ruby on Rails
/
serialize(attr_name, class_name = Object)
public

If you have an attribute that needs to be saved to the database as an object, and retrieved as the same object, then specify the name of that attribute using this method and it will be handled automatically. The serialization is done through YAML. If class_name is specified, the serialized object must be of that class on retrieval or SerializationTypeMismatch will be raised.

Parameters

  • attr_name - The field name that should be serialized.

  • class_name - Optional, class name that the object type should be equal to.

Example

# Serialize a preferences attribute.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  serialize :preferences
end

1Note

Custom serialization

Fester ยท Sep 11, 20121 thank

It is possible to supply a class with own (de)serialization logic to the serialize call. Given object must respond to load and dump calls.

Following example serializes symbols into their string representation and store them in database as raw strings instead of their YAML representation, i.e. :pumpkin would be stored as 'pumpkin', and not as '-\-\- :pumpkin\
'

=== Example

clas SomeModel < ActiveRecord::Base
class SymbolWrapper
  def self.load(string)
    string.to_sym
  end

  def self.dump(symbol)
    symbol.to_s
  end
end

serialize :value, SymbolWrapper
end