JSON date string parse error in Rails

Question

I've got a large data model in a Rails application that I'm trying to make serializable and output to JSON. I defined the #serializable_hash method on the model and blacklisted a few attributes. My goal is to whitelist attributes on the controller layer to accept back that same structure and simply ignore values that I don't want "accessible".

One such attribute is giving me trouble when I PUT update with the aforementioned JSON. I get an error while parsing request parameters:

SyntaxError (/Users/brad/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@project-rails32/gems/actionpack-3.2.13/lib/action_dispatch/http/request.rb:261: syntax error, unexpected tINTEGER, expecting $end ...02933", "software_date"=>"09/05/14", "software_version"=>"10... ... ^): # stack trace... 

As far as Rails is concerned, this is just a string right? Why is it expecting an end of input here? For the record, taking this attribute out before submitting my request results in a successful update, so I'm sure this is what's causing the issue.

Answer 1

Turns out I'm the unluckiest guy in the world.

Familiarize yourself with Ruby's %Q() method, and you'll understand where I'm at.

Under my very very specific case, when Rails is parsing params for a request:

1. in JSON format
2. which has a key mapping to an Array
3. and any value under that Array contains a '/'

the parse will fail. Why?

My version of Rails (3.2.13) uses the AwesomePrint library version 0.3.2 when parsing out parameters for the params hash. The #grep method for that version of the gem evaluates matches using:

%Q/#{match}/ 

Simply because the specified delimiter is a '/', the evaluation fails and parsing crashes. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU.