Rest Wrapper

HTTP/REST client wrapper that provides a standard interface for making http requests using different http clients. If no client is specified it will choose the best http client you have installed based on our performance tests.

Features

• All clients behave exactly the same:
  • Same error behavior
  • Same 30X redirect behavior
  • Same response object methods
  • Same way to access and manipulate requests and responses such as body, headers, code, etc.
• Chooses best client you have installed on your system based on what we have found performs the best.
  • Currently net_http_persistent and typhoeus are nearly the same, but since net_http_persistent doesn't have a binary dependency, it wins.
  • You can run performance tests yourself by running: ruby test/test_performance.rb, quite a difference between the libs.
• Handles 503 errors with exponential backoff.

Getting Started

Install the gem:

gem install rest

Create an Rest client:

@rest = Rest::Client.new()

To choose a specific underlying http client lib:

@rest = Rest::Client.new(:gem=>:typhoeus)

Supported http libraries are:

• rest_client
• net_http_persistent
• typhoeus
• internal - this gem's built in client.

Then use it:

GET

@rest.get(url, options...)

options:

• :params => query params for url
• :headers => headers

POST

@rest.post(url, options...)

options:

• :body => POST body
• :headers => headers hash
• :form_data => hash of fields/values, sent form encoded (only tested with default net-http-persistent)

PUT

@rest.put(url, options...)

options:

• :body => POST body
• :headers => headers

DELETE

@rest.delete(url, options...)

Responses

The response object you get back will always be consistent and will have the following functions:

response.code
response.body

Exceptions

If it didn't get a response for whatever reason, you will get a Rest::ClientError

If status code is 40X or 50X, it will raise an exception with the following methods.

err.code
err.response (which has body: err.response.body)