rails dates with json

I am implementing a Facebook application and using AJAX/JSON.

However the JSON structures that are returned have this format 2010-05-30T06:14:00Z.

I'm calling Game.all.to_json in controller action.

How can I convert them to a normal date format?

Is it easier to do it from the server side or the client side using fbjs? There are a lot of bugs with fbjs.

So i would prefer using a solution from the Server side using (Active Records). Like converting the data before sending the JSON structures.

The way I added my own custom format to the json I was returning was to add a monkey patch to the ActiveSupport TimeWithZone class.

Add a file in the config/initializers folder with the following contents:

class ActiveSupport::TimeWithZone
    def as_json(options = {})
        strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
    end
end

With timezone working in all major browsers and ie7+:

class ActiveSupport::TimeWithZone
  def as_json(options = {})
    strftime('%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S %z')
  end
end

Rails now has the .as_json method on the DateTime object. Life made easier.

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