How do I convert XML into a hash in Rails?

Question

How do I convert an XML body to a hash in Ruby?

I have an XML body which I\'d like to parse into a hash

Answer 1

If you don't mind using a gem, crack does a pretty good job at this.

Crack does the XML to hash processing, then you can loop over the resulting hash to normalize the datetimes.

edit Using REXML, you could try the following (should be close to working, but I do not have access to a terminal so it may need some tweaking):

require 'rexml/document'
arr = []
doc = REXML::XPath.first(REXML::Document.new(xml), "//soap:Body/TimesInMyDAY").text
REXML::XPath.each(doc, "//TIME_DATA") do |el|
  start = REXML::XPath.first(el, "//StartTime").text
  end = REXML::XPath.first(el, "//EndTime").text
  arr.push({:start_time => Time.parse(start).in_time_zone(current_user.time_zone), :end_time => Time.parse(end).in_time_zone(current_user.time_zone)})
end

hash = { :times_in_my_day => { :time_data => arr } }

Of course, this assumes the structure is ALWAYS the same, and that the example you posted was not contrived for simplicity sake (as examples often are).