[WIP] Replace to_hash with as_json

[agrare]

Follow-up to https://github.com/ManageIQ/rbvmomi2/pull/29/files#r1062876312

@Fryguy I wonder if #as_json might be better since String#as_json returns a String just wanted to throw this up to start the coversation

[Fryguy]

How/where was to_hash being used previously? I understand it's for deserialization, but I'm not sure I fully understand how that particular method comes into play. I also don't understand the nuances of to_json vs as_json

[agrare]

How/where was to_hash being used previously

It was used for serializing these objects to json, there was a bug where .to_json would blow up serializing anything that included a ManagedObject (so basically everything). So we need a way to convert these objects to something that will to_json nicely, we haven't done this for .to_yaml because it didn't throw an exception but the idea was a common "to_hash" method that could to_json and to_yaml nicely.

[agrare]

I also don't understand the nuances of to_json vs as_json

I was thinking it would follow the rails as_json which returns a hash and then to_json which returns a json string (https://apidock.com/rails/ActiveModel/Serializers/JSON/as_json). You are right that to_hash returning a string is a little confusing which is why I thought as_json would be better, but then it doesn't work as well for going to to_yaml in the future.

[Fryguy]

Oh that's interesting - don't think I've seen as_json before, but it seems the benefit there is that it allows hiding things in ActiveModel via options. 🤔