Rails: Dynamic Model from JSON sans DB

gistfile1.rb

require 'net/http'
class Item 
  #replaced with dynamic initialization below 
  #attr_reader :id, :user, :state
  #
  #
  # Sample JSON
  #
  # [{ "id":1, "user":"john", "state":"active" },
  #  { "id":2, "user":"jane", "state":"inactive" },
  #  { "id":3, "user":"jack", "state":"active" },
  #  { "id":4, "user":"jeff", "state":"inactive" },
  #  { "id":5, "user":"jimm", "state":"active" }]
  #
  #
  # Adding JSON class variable and setter to make this even more dynamic.
  #    note: I'm sure there's a better way to do this...
  #          e.g. with a configure block or something.
  #
  # Additionally, adding auto ssl stuff...

  @@json_path = nil
  @@use_ssl = false
  def self.json_path=(path)
    @@use_ssl = true if path =~ /^https/
    @@json_path = path
  end

      # To use the above, add:
      #     Item.json_path = "<path>" 
      #   to your config/environment.rb or 
      #   config/environments/*.rb
      #
      # This will pre-load it in to your application.
      #

  def self.all
    self.get_items_from_source.map { |i| new(i) }
  end

  def self.find( param )
    all.detect { |i| i.id == param } || raise(ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound)
  end

  def self.where( query )
    ret = []
    all.each { |i| ret.push(i) if i.include?(query) } || 
        raise(ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound)
    return ret
  end

  def initialize item
    raise "expected Hash param" unless item.kind_of? Hash
    item.each do |key,value|
      instance_variable_set("@#{key.to_s}".to_sym, value)
      define_singleton_method(key.to_s) { instance_variable_get("@#{key.to_s}".to_sym) }
    end
  end

  # replaced with dynamic initialization above
  #def initialize hash
    #@id         = hash["id"]
    #@user       = hash["user"]
    #@state      = hash["state"]
  #end

  def include? query
    raise InvalidParamType 
        unless query.respond_to?('has_key?') and query.respond_to?('has_value?')
    query.each do |k,v| 
      return false unless self.instance_variable_get("@#{k.to_s}".to_sym) == v
    end
  end

  protected
  def self.get_items_from_source
    raise MissingJsonPath if @@json_path.nil?
    items = []
    uri = URI.parse(@@json_path)

    if @@use_ssl
      require 'openssl'
      http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
      http.use_ssl = true
      request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)
      response = http.request(request)
    else
      response = Net::HTTP.get_response(uri)
    end

    JSON.parse(response.body).each { |i| items.push i }
    items
  end

  # custom exceptions
  class InvalidParamType < Exception 
  end
  class MissingJsonPath < Exception
  end
end

Rails requires JSON by default. This works perfectly without Rails, except you have to require 'json' before using.