JSON & XML parsing with Sinatra, RestClient & HTTParty

These days I was playing with Sinatra, RestClient and HTTParty microframeworks for Ruby and from what I know, there is no automatic parsing for RestClient like in HTTParty, so I tried the following test by using all three of them:

Sinatra quick test:

require 'rubygems'
require 'sinatra'

get "/my/get" do
  '{"response":{"error":false,"message":"Back to you from get"}}'
end
post "/my/post" do
  '<response><error>false</error><message>Back to you from post</message></response>'
end

RestClient & HTTParty quick test:

(for httparty > 0.4.2)

require 'rubygems'
require 'rest_client'
require 'httparty'

include HTTParty

string_response = RestClient.get("http://localhost:4567/my/get")
response = Crack::JSON.parse(string_response)
p response

string_response = RestClient.post ("http://localhost:4567/my/post", {})
response = Crack::XML.parse(string_response)
p response

… so, we have the same objects from both JSON and XML responsess

Ubuntu 8.10 libxml-ruby install

Two steps are needed:

1. sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev
2. sudo gem install libxml-ruby

Without running first step, something like that could come up:

Building native extensions.  This could take a while…
ERROR:  Error installing libxml-ruby:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb install libxml-ruby
checking for socket() in -lsocket… no
checking for gethostbyname() in -lnsl… yes
checking for atan() in -lm… no
checking for atan() in -lm… yes
checking for inflate() in -lz… no
checking for inflate() in -lzlib… no
checking for inflate() in -lzlib1… no
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers.  Check the mkmf.log file for more
details.  You may need configuration options.

Thant should be all.

Ruby private vs. protected visibility

Very interesting notification about private / protected visibility in Ruby.

RoR FrontController

Zilele trecute am dat de o situaţie în care am fost nevoit să folosesc un front controller.
Cam aşa am facut (multumiri autorului postului original):

# Să presupunem ca avem un controller numit Admin.
class AdminController < ApplicationController
def process(request, response, method = :perform_action, *arguments)
super(request, response, :index)
end
def index
@req_host = request.env["HTTP_HOST"]
@req_url = request.env["PATH_INFO"]
find_controller.constantize.new.process(request, response)
rescue NameError
# Actiunea default care va fi folosită în caz ca nu există controller-ul specificat
render :action => ‘index’
end def find_controller
controller = “”
action = “”
# URL-ul aşteptat va avea forma de mai jos (ex: /admin/mycontroller/myaction )
if @req_url =~ /^\/(\w*\_*\w*)\/(\w*\_*\w*)\/*(\w*\_*\w*)$/
controller = $2.to_s.downcase
action = $3.to_s.downcase
end
if action.empty? && !controller.empty?
action = ‘index’
end
params[:action] = action
case controller
when “admin_workshoptypes”
# Numele clasei controller-ului va fi returnată în caz că acesta a fost găsit
return “AdminWorkshoptypesController”
else
# Dacă niciun controller nu a fost găsit, numele unui controller inexistent va fi returnat
return “noController”
end
end

end

Dacă vom folosi: http://localhost:3000/admin/mycontroller/myaction,
se va trece prin controller-ul de mai sus, apoi o redirectare va fi făcută către controller-ul “mycontroller” şi către acţiunea “myaction” aferentă acestuia.
Spor la treaba.

easy ?

using ruby 1.9, in order to get a character from a string using a specific position, you’ll do:

irb(main):001:0> "abc"[1]
=> "b"

but in ruby 1.8:

irb(main):001:0> "abc"[1..1]
=> "b"

There is an easier way, for 1.8, to do that?

to whom may concern…

New ruby book out there (also covers 1.9 version)