# turns everything into the same object class AddressXMLFormatter include ActiveResource::Formats::XmlFormat def decode(xml) data = ActiveResource::Formats::XmlFormat.decode(xml) # process address fields data.each do |address| address['city_state'] = "#{address['city']}, #{address['state']}" end data end end class AddressResource < ActiveResource::Base self.element_name = "address" self.format = AddressXMLFormatter.new end