How to pass parameters between rails applications?

Question

I have to pass parameters between two rails apps. In one side (sender) I have an array of hashes. I have a code like the following to send the data:

   http = Net::HTTP.new('localhost', '3030')
   result = http.post('/processar_lotes', my_array_of_hashes)

Some questions

• Is there any (kind of) serialize or something like this that I can pass to the other app?
• At the other side, how can I de-serialize the information?
• Is there a limit to the size of what I pass as a parameter?

Answer 1

Probably not the answer you're looking for, but I'd use XML. This would make your application much more flexible than using language-specific serialization.

It shouldn't be too hard to convert the array to XML and back.

EDIT: You might wanna check out ROXML and XML::Mapping.

Answer 2

To answer your questions:

• There are many ways to 'serialize' the data. You can use your own custom format, or use a standard one. For example, you can try to use the Rails to_xml method, or the to_json method. You can also use Ruby's Marshal object.
• Depending on your choice, this might be from_json, from_xml, Marshal.load, or your own custom reader.
• Normally, this is unlimited for HTTP posts, but depending on your server configuration, it could be less.