module ActiveSupport::JSON

def decode(json, options ={})

=> {"team" => "rails", "players" => "36"}
ActiveSupport::JSON.decode("{\"team\":\"rails\",\"players\":\"36\"}")

See www.json.org for more info.
Parses a JSON string (JavaScript Object Notation) into a hash. 
def decode(json, options ={})
  data = MultiJson.load(json, options)
  if ActiveSupport.parse_json_times
    convert_dates_from(data)
  else
    data
  end
end