Rails rendering JSON --> Square Brakets?

i render some object using json:

def index
  if user_signed_in?
   @todos = current_user.todos.find_all()
   render :json => @todos
  else
    return nil
  end
end

it actually does that, but there's a problem. I get square brakets [ ] arround the json output and some plugins or json viewers cannot read it because of them. Here some sample output:

[{"todo":{"name":"Te开发者_运维百科st todo","created_at":"2010-11-24T07:40:07Z","updated_at":"2010-11-24T07:40:07Z","done":0,"id":1,"user_id":1}},{"todo":{"name":"Ali Test","created_at":"2010-11-24T07:40:30Z","updated_at":"2010-11-24T07:40:30Z","done":0,"id":2,"user_id":1}}]

thanks in advance!

Have you tried?

render :json => @todos.to_json

To get the JSON output you are expecting you need to render a Hash and not an Array. Here is an in-depth post on converting:

What is the best way to convert an array to a hash in Ruby

Quick summary with OP syntax:

 render :json => Hash[*@todos.flatten]

or for an asymmetrical array

render :json => Hash[@todos.map {|key, value| [key, value]}]

In some cases though this adds extra nulls that you don't want and you may have to break your array down and flatten it or simply use Hash[ instead of [ whenever possible.