To send structured types across the wire, derive from ActionWebService::Struct, and use member to declare structure members.

ActionWebService::Struct should be used in method signatures when you want to accept or return structured types that have no Active Record model class representations, or you don't want to expose your entire Active Record model to remote callers.

Example

class Person < ActionWebService::Struct
  member :id,         :int
  member :firstnames, [:string]
  member :lastname,   :string
  member :email,      :string
end
person = Person.new(:id => 5, :firstname => 'john', :lastname => 'doe')

Active Record model classes are already implicitly supported in method signatures.

Methods
#
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M
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Class Public methods
member(name, type)

Creates a structure member with the specified name and type. Generates accessor methods for reading and writing the member value.

Source: show 

# File rails/actionwebservice/lib/action_web_service/struct.rb, line 49
      def member(name, type)
        name = name.to_sym
        type = ActionWebService::SignatureTypes.canonical_signature_entry({ name => type }, 0)
        write_inheritable_hash("struct_members", name => type)
        class_eval "          def #{name}; @#{name}; end
          def #{name}=(value); @#{name} = value; end
"
      end
new(values={})

If a Hash is given as argument to an ActionWebService::Struct constructor, it can contain initial values for the structure member.

Source: show 

# File rails/actionwebservice/lib/action_web_service/struct.rb, line 28
def initialize(values={})
  if values.is_a?(Hash)
    values.map{|k,v| __send__('%s=' % k.to_s, v)}
  end
end
Instance Public methods
[](name)

The member with the given name

Source: show 

# File rails/actionwebservice/lib/action_web_service/struct.rb, line 35
def [](name)
  send(name.to_s)
end
each_pair(&block)

Iterates through each member

Source: show 

# File rails/actionwebservice/lib/action_web_service/struct.rb, line 40
def each_pair(&block)
  self.class.members.each do |name, type|
    yield name, self.__send__(name)
  end
end