Access URL on another website from a model in rails

Question

I want to access a URL of another website from one of my models, parse some information and send it back to my user. Is this possible? For example, the user sends me an address through a POST, and I want to validate the information through a third party website (USPS or GMaps)

What methods would I use to create the request and parse the response?

This is not a redirect. I want to open a new request that is transparent from the client.

Answer 1

There are a lot of libraries to handle this such as:

• HTTParty on http://github.com/jnunemaker/httparty
• Curb on http://curb.rubyforge.org/
• Patron on http://github.com/toland/patron

Example using Patron:

sess = Patron::Session.new
sess.timeout = 10
sess.base_url = "http://myserver.com:9900"
sess.headers['User-Agent'] = 'myapp/1.0'
resp = sess.get("/foo/bar")
if resp.status < 400
      puts resp.body
end

Each solution has its own way of handling requests and parsing them as well as variations in their API. Look for what fits your needs the best.