products_controller_spec issue about diy-json-serializer-lab-v-000

[mddilley]

Another solution to this issue is to pay close attention to the double quotes in the serialize method. Having double quotes surrounding the product.inventory.to_s call causes the inventory value to have double quotes in the JSON (so it appears to the test suite as a string).

def self.serialize(product)
    serialized_product = '{'

    serialized_product += '"id": ' + product.id.to_s + ', '
    serialized_product += '"name": "' + product.name + '", '
    serialized_product += '"price": "' + product.price.to_s + '", '
    serialized_product += '"inventory": "' + product.inventory.to_s + '", '
    serialized_product += '"description": "' + product.description + '"'

    serialized_product += '}'
end

which results in a JSON that fails the test suite
{id: 2, name: "Another Thing", price: "12", inventory: "0", description: "asdfasdf asdf ksdfkksadfk aksdjfaksdjfkasjdf kasdfjaskdjfasdf "}
vs.

def self.serialize(product)
    serialized_product = '{'

    serialized_product += '"id": ' + product.id.to_s + ', '
    serialized_product += '"name": "' + product.name + '", '
    serialized_product += '"price": "' + product.price.to_s + '", '
    serialized_product += '"inventory": ' + product.inventory.to_s + ', '
    serialized_product += '"description": "' + product.description + '"'

    serialized_product += '}'
end

which results in a JSON that passes the test
{id: 2, name: "Another Thing", price: "12", inventory: 0, description: "asdfasdf asdf ksdfkksadfk aksdjfaksdjfkasjdf kasdfjaskdjfasdf "}

[anihakutin]

Had the same issue, came up with this:
(Below is also the reason for the Rails #to_json method...)
serialized_product += '"description": ' + (product.description.nil? ? '" "' : '"' + product.description + '"' ) + ' '