Rails - Jan 2006 - Limit attributes written out by to_yaml

I want to write out a series of records to a text file so that I can 
quickly edit them and then upload then again into the database.  To do 
this I am using YAML and some code that looks like this:

item = Item.find 153
File.open( ''item.yaml'', ''w'' ) do |out|
  YAML.dump( item, out )
end

This dumps out all the field names and values which are stored in the 
attributes hash.  The output looks something like this:

  - !ruby/object:Item
    attributes:
      image_height: ''''
      maximum_value: ''''
      minimum_value: ''''
      item_id: 153
      default_value: ''''
      ... many more fields

However I don''t want all these fields.  How can I limit the YAML output
to just include the fields that I want?

I know that I can override to_yaml_properties to specify the fields that 
i want from a class.  But that really only lets me choose whether I want 
to export @attributes or not.  I think that I could override 
to_yaml_properties of @attributes.  Something like this

class Item
  class <<@attributes
    def to_yaml_properties
      # ....?
    end
  end
end

But I''m not too sure what I should write there?
Or maybe I should be overriding def Item.@attributes.to_yaml ?

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks


      image_alignment: ''''
      display_format: Vertical
      minimum_number_responses:
      item_sub_text: ''''



      page_number: 5
      row_text_width:
      email_address_yn: N
      survey_id: 153
      other_yn: N
      random_answer_order_yn: N
      database_dsn: ''''
      image_width: ''''
      other_display_type:
      subitem_count:
      answer_total:
      item_text: "<span style=\"font-weight:bold\">When a
good has
positive network externalities,
        this means that when using the product:</span>"
      order_number: 26
      item_alias: ''''
      image_path: ''''
      maximum_number_responses:
      maximum_length:
      item_type_id: 3
      database_sql: ''''
      other_text: "Other, please specify"
      required_yn: N

However there

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