I would like to take information from another website. Therefore (maybe) I should make a request to that website (in my case a HTTP GET request) and receive the response.
How can I make this in Ruby on Rails?
If it is possible, is it a correct approach to use in my controllers?
You can use Ruby's Net::HTTP class:
require 'net/http'
url = URI.parse('http://www.example.com/index.html')
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(url.to_s)
res = Net::HTTP.start(url.host, url.port) {|http|
http.request(req)
}
puts res.body
Net::HTTP is built into Ruby, but let's face it, often it's easier not to use its cumbersome 1980s style and try a higher level alternative:
Net::HTTP is cumbersome but the trade off isn't worth it.
OpenURI is the best; it's as simple as
require 'open-uri'
response = open('http://example.com').read
open-uri won't follow redirects.
file:///etc/passwd
require 'net/http'
result = Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse('http://www.example.com/about.html'))
# or
result = Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse('http://www.example.com'), '/about.html')
URI('http://www.example.com/') gives the same result.I prefer httpclient over Net::HTTP.
client = HTTPClient.new
puts client.get_content('http://www.example.com/index.html')
HTTParty is a good choice if you're making a class that's a client for a service. It's a convenient mixin that gives you 90% of what you need. See how short the Google and Twitter clients are in the examples.
And to answer your second question: no, I wouldn't put this functionality in a controller--I'd use a model instead if possible to encapsulate the particulars (perhaps using HTTParty) and simply call it from the controller.
Here is the code that works if you are making a REST api call behind a proxy:
require "uri"
require 'net/http'
proxy_host = '<proxy addr>'
proxy_port = '<proxy_port>'
proxy_user = '<username>'
proxy_pass = '<password>'
uri = URI.parse("https://saucelabs.com:80/rest/v1/users/<username>")
proxy = Net::HTTP::Proxy(proxy_host, proxy_port, proxy_user, proxy_pass)
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.path)
req.basic_auth(<sauce_username>,<sauce_password>)
result = proxy.start(uri.host,uri.port) do |http|
http.request(req)
end
puts result.body
