How to Parse JSON with Ruby on Rails
Tags: ruby, rails, json
Published: 2023-01-29 13:33:31

---
title: How to Parse JSON with Ruby on Rails
published: false
tags: ruby,rails,json
published: true
canonical_url: https://blog.corsego.com/parse-json-with-ruby-on-rails
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/wlitf2b8nu26c0sffwij.png
---

JSON is possibly the most popular format for **sharing** data via API.

Sometimes you just have a JSON that you have to feed into your app.

First, here’s an example json file:

```json
// db/view_data/superails-episodes.json
[
  {
    "rank_number": 103,
    "title": "Ruby on Rails #103 Simple Omniauth without Devise",
    "description": "Previously I’ve covered \"Github omniauth with Devise\".\nAn even simpler solution would be to sign in via a social login provider (Github) without Devise at all! \nHere’s the easiest way to create your whole social authentication solution from zero!\n",
    "tags": [
        "omniauth",
        "authentication"
    ]
  },
  {
    "rank_number": 102,
    "title": "Ruby on Rails #102 Email Calendar Invite",
    "description": "In THIS episode we will EMAIL calendar invites and automatically add them to a users calendar!\nWe will also handle updating/cancelling events!\n",
    "tags": [
        "icalendar",
        "email",
        "action-mailer"
    ]
  },
  {
    "rank_number": 101,
    "title": "Ruby on Rails #101 iCalendar and .ics format. Add events to calendar",
    "description": "Learn to create valid calendar events, that a user can download as an .ics file and add to his calendar!\n",
    "tags": [
        "icalendar"
    ]
  },
  {
    "rank_number": 100,
    "title": "Ruby on Rails #100 Browser tab title notifications",
    "description": "Do you like see the \"new notifications count\" in the LinkedIn browser tab?\nIn this episode we will update the browser tab title, if the application user has new unsee notifications.\n",
    "tags": [
        "hotwire"
    ]
  },
  {
    "rank_number": 99,
    "title": "Ruby on Rails #99 Hotwire: Search and Infinite Pagination (Ransack with Pagy)",
    "description": "Implementing search or pagination is relatively easy, but it can get tricky when you try to combine the two, especially when you factor in some frontend. In this eposide we will learn to use gem Ransack for search, and gem Pagy for infinite scroll pagination.\n",
    "tags": [
        "ransack",
        "pagy",
        "hotwire"
    ]
  }
]

```

Parse JSON with Ruby:

```ruby
path = "/Users/yaroslavshmarov/Downloads/superails-episodes.json"
data = File.read(path)
require 'json'
json = JSON.parse(data)

json.first['rank_number']
# => 103
json.map { |element| element['title'] }
# =>
# ["Ruby on Rails #103 Simple Omniauth without Devise",
# "Ruby on Rails #102 Email Calendar Invite",
# "Ruby on Rails #101 iCalendar and .ics format. Add events to calendar",
# "Ruby on Rails #100 Browser tab title notifications",
# "Ruby on Rails #99 Hotwire: Search and Infinite Pagination (Ransack with Pagy)"]

json.first['title'] = 'New title'
# write to the json file
File.write(path, JSON.dump(data))

```

Parse JSON within Rails:

```
data = File.read('./db/fixtures/superails-episodes.json')
json = JSON.parse(data)

```

That’s it! 🤠