oauth.md

Authorizing Goodreads via OAuth

For services requiring permission, such as write operations or browsing friends, the client must be authorized through OAuth.

Request Tokens vs. Access Tokens

First, get an OAuth request token:

request_token = OAuth::Consumer.new(
  Goodreads.configuration[:api_key],
  Goodreads.configuration[:api_secret],
  site: "http://www.goodreads.com"
).get_request_token

Next, authorize by opening the authorization URL in a browser:

request_token.authorize_url

Then request an OAuth access token:

access_token = request_token.get_access_token

Finally, initialize a Goodreads client with it:

goodreads_client = Goodreads.new(oauth_token: access_token)

For more info, see the Goodreads documentation.

Storing Token and Token Secret

Store the OAuth token and secret in your database to reuse later.

@oauth_token_string = access_token.params[:oauth_token]

@oauth_secret_string = access_token.params[:oauth_token_secret]		

Then store these to your User model (in this example we will store them as User.access_token and User.secret)

Rebuiding an OAuth user

Using the token and secret stored for that use in your database, you can rebuild an authorized user. Assuming your current_user is the logged in user:

@consumer = OAuth::Consumer.new(
  Goodreads.configuration[:api_key],
  Goodreads.configuration[:api_secret],
  site: "http://www.goodreads.com"
)
user_oauth_token = current_user.access_token
user_oauth_token_secret = current_user.secret
access_token = OAuth::AccessToken.new(@consumer, user_oauth_token, user_oauth_token_secret) 

goodreads_client = Goodreads.new(oauth_token: access_token)

User ID

Get the ID of the user who authorized via OAuth:

goodreads_client.user_id

Friends

Get the friend details for a user:

friends_hash = goodreads_client.friends [user_id]

Get a list of their names:

friends_hash.user.map{ |u| u.name }