RablRails now accepts local methods for child nodes and

root objects. Local methods are used by decent_exposure or
focused_controller

lib/rabl-rails/compiler.rb

@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ module RablRails
         name_or_data
       end
     end
-    
+
     def sub_compile(data)
       return {} unless block_given?
       old_template, @template = @template, {}

lib/rabl-rails/renderers/base.rb

@@ -18,7 +18,9 @@ module RablRails
       # method defined by the renderer.
       #
       def render(template)
-        collection_or_resource = instance_variable_get(template.data) if template.data
+        collection_or_resource = if template.data
+          template.data.to_s.start_with?('@') ? instance_variable_get(template.data) : @_context.send(template.data)
+        end
         collection_or_resource = @_context.target_object unless collection_or_resource || template.data == false || !@_context.respond_to?(:target_object)
         output_hash = collection_or_resource.respond_to?(:each) ? render_collection(collection_or_resource, template.source) :
           render_resource(collection_or_resource, template.source)
@@ -55,7 +57,13 @@ module RablRails
           when Hash
             current_value = value.dup
             data_symbol = current_value.delete(:_data)
-            object = data_symbol.nil? ? data : data_symbol.to_s.start_with?('@') ? instance_variable_get(data_symbol) : data.send(data_symbol)
+            object = if data_symbol == nil
+              data
+            else
+              data_symbol.to_s.start_with?('@') ? instance_variable_get(data_symbol)
+                                                : data.respond_to?(data_symbol) ? data.send(data_symbol)
+                                                                                : send(data_symbol)
+            end
 
             if key.to_s.start_with?('_') # glue
               current_value.each_pair { |k, v|