I have a collection, want to generate a javascript object with it

I have a collection:

@products = Product.where("product_type = ?", 3)

I now want to create a javascript object so I can perform lookups in the UI like:

my_products[2342]

and it will return:

"some_name"

I believe it should look like:

var my_products = {
     2342: "some_name",
     5321: "there blah"

}

What's a nice way to generate this in my controller's action?

ActiveRecord and Ruby in general has a method to_json that should help you do what you're looking for.

Basically construct the array you want to create in Ruby and call to_json to create a string that is a valid javascript object to use.

I recommend using to_json, but if you want another option you could generate the js object literal notation using an js.erb template.

views/products/products.js.erb

var products = {
<% @products.each do |product| %>
  <%= "#{product.id}: \"#{@product.name}\"," %>
<% end %> 
}

Then, setup a controller method using either a dedicated method or a responds_to block. Finally, have the AJAX call the method and execute the returned code which will result in you having access to the product variable defined in the js.erb template.