# nesquena/rabl

General ruby templating with json, bson, xml, plist and msgpack support

Repository: https://github.com/nesquena/rabl
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/rabl
Homepage: http://blog.codepath.com/2011/06/27/building-a-platform-api-on-rails/
Language: Ruby
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-03-18T20:00:35+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 66/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 72, release rhythm 40, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5627, "days_push": 168, "days_rel": 645, "gap_med": 0, "n_releases_24m": 4}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3632, forks 332 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:12.065406+00:00)

## What it is
RABL (Ruby API Builder Language) is a Ruby templating system for Rails and Padrino that generates JSON, XML, MessagePack, PList, and BSON API responses. It provides an expressive view-layer DSL for building API representations that don't match database schemas directly.

## Use cases
- generate custom JSON API responses in Rails
- serialize ActiveRecord objects with renamed or aliased attributes
- render partial templates to reduce duplication in API views
- conditionally include nodes in API output
- build nested API representations from model associations
- output MessagePack or BSON instead of JSON

## When to choose
- you need complex JSON shapes that don't match your database schema
- you want API representation logic kept in the view layer per MVC
- you use Rails or Padrino and need multiple serialization formats

## When to avoid
- simple APIs where ActiveRecord's to_ suffices
- non-Ruby stacks or frameworks without RABL integration
- projects preferring serializer gems like active_model_serializers or jbuilder

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: templating, serialization, api-framework
- domain: web-development, backend, apis
- platform: ruby
- tags: -templating, api-builder, rails, padrino, xml, msgpack, bson, plist, web-server

## Member repositories
- nesquena/rabl (main) score 66

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:12.065406+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:31:52.599764+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/nesquena/rabl (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:12.065406+00:00, sha 270d49380852)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.