transmitting raw data vs. tree-structured data
 

Hi, I'm trying to decide using one of two approaches getting
tree-structured data to users.

approach #1:
build the tree from raw data in rails model code, then transfer it via
AJAX in XML

approach #2:
transfer all raw data in XML form first, then use javascript to build
the tree.

The problem with approach #1 is that I'm currently stuck doing it.
Building the tree in model code is easy; but I'm having all sort of
problems transferring it. (I can't use hash.to_xml directly since each
key is an object, and using object.to_xml while building to tree results
in incorrect rendering)

The problem with approach #2 is I don't know if javascript is power
enough to handle "building a tree from xml, preferably using a hash that
can have associative arrays as keys", which is why I want to ask around
and post on this forum.

I'm new to both Rails and javascript.

Anyone has any ideas?
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Re: transmitting raw data vs. tree-structured data
 

Max You wrote:
> Anyone has any ideas?

Use JSON.
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Re: transmitting raw data vs. tree-structured data
 

Thank you both for the replies. I ended up mandating all AJAX data
transfer to use JSON format, and it works very well. Additionally, it
turned out very easy to rewrite the stuff and add custom to_json methods
in rails.
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