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How to serialize a Plain-Old Ruby Object (PORO)

When you are first getting started with ActiveModelSerializers, it may seem only ActiveRecord::Base objects can be serializable, but pretty much any object can be serializable with ActiveModelSerializers. Here is an example of a PORO that is serializable:

# my_model.rb
class MyModel
  alias :read_attribute_for_serialization :send
  attr_accessor :id, :name, :level

  def initialize(attributes)
    @id = attributes[:id]
    @name = attributes[:name]
    @level = attributes[:level]
  end

  def self.model_name
    @_model_name ||= ActiveModel::Name.new(self)
  end
end

Fortunately, ActiveModelSerializers provides a ActiveModelSerializers::Model which you can use in production code that will make your PORO a lot cleaner. The above code now becomes:

# my_model.rb
class MyModel < ActiveModelSerializers::Model
  attr_accessor :id, :name, :level
end

The default serializer would be MyModelSerializer.