From: Keith Tom <keith.tom@...>
Date: 2007-03-24T02:38:50+09:00
Subject: Serializing a nested hash

Hi all,

I ran into some trouble w/ a model that has a nested hash attribute and 
need some help.
Here are the details:

- migration has "t.column :attribute, :text"
- model has "serialize :attribute, Hash"

Now when I put a plain (non-nested) hash in my fixtures, this attribute 
works fine; I run the tests, it unserializes, and am very happy.
When I put something like this in the fixture:

    attribute: "<%= { :date => 1, :items => 2}.to_yaml %>"

I run the tests and get:

Exception: attribute was supposed to be a Hash, but was a String
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.14.4.5618/lib/active_record/base.rb:1951:in 
`unserialize_attribute'

I checked and the string that is being returned is:

---  :items: 2 :date: 1

I did some googling and was under the impression nested hashes are 
okay...  I get the feeling that is wrong...

Thanks in advance guys!
Keith