How to run cURL commands in Rails - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm using Ruby on Rails 5 and I need to execute the following command in my application:
curl -F 'client_id=126581840734567' -F 'client_secret=678ebe1b3b8081231aab27dff738313' -F 'grant_type=authorization_code' -F 'redirect_uri=https://uri.com/' -F 'code=AQBi4L2Ohy3Q_N3V48OygFm0zb3gEsL985x5TIyDTNDJaLs93BwXiT1tyGYWoCg1HlBDU7ZRjUfLL5HVlzw4G-7YkVEjp6Id2WuqOz0Ylt-k2ADwDC5upH3CGVtHgf2udQhLlfDnQz5NPsnmxjg4bW3PJpW5FaQs8fn1ztgYp-ssfAf6IRt2-sI45ZC8cqqr5K_12y0Nq_Joh0H-tTfVyNLKatIxHPCqRDb3tfqgmxim1Q' https://api.instagram.com/oauth/access_token
so that it returns something like:
{"access_token": "IGQVJYS0k8V6ZACRC10WjYxQWtyMVRZAN8VXamh0RVBZAYi34RkFlOUxXZnTJsbjlEfnFJNmprQThmQ4hTckpFUmJEaXZAnQlNYa25aWURnX3hpO12NV1VMWDNMWmdIT3FicnJfZAVowM3VldlVWZAEViN1ZAidHlyU2VDMUNuMm2V", "user_id": 17231445640157812}
Is there a way to make Rails execute those types of commands? I was trying the following:
uri = URI.parse('https://api.instagram.com/oauth/access_token')
http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri.request_uri)
request.set_form_data({
"client_id" => "126581840734567",
"client_secret" => "678ebe1b3b8081231aab27dff738313",
"grant_type" => "authorization_code",
"redirect_uri" => "http://nace.network/",
"code" => params[:code]
})
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.hostname, uri.port) do |http|
http.request(request)
end
but I get the following error:
end of file reached
in this line:
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.hostname, uri.port) do |http|
http.request(request)
end

Answer 1

You're using HTTPS, so you need to add this to your code:
Net::HTTP.start(uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true) do |http|
res = http.request(request)
end
But if you don't need persistent connections, you could also use this:
res = Net::HTTP.post_form(uri,
"client_id" => "126581840734567",
"client_secret" => "678ebe1b3b8081231aab27dff738313",
"grant_type" => "authorization_code",
"redirect_uri" => "http://nace.network/",
"code" => params[:code]
)
Also, you could consider using a library like Faraday, which is a lot easier to deal with.

Answer 2

Edit
This is from TinMan's comment below, sound points.
Using cURL from inside Ruby or Rails is extremely valuable. There is an incredible amount of functionality inside cURL that isn't implemented in Rails or Ruby; Even Ruby's HTTP clients have a hard time replicating it, so cURL is very acceptable depending on the needs of the application. And, depending on the application, because cURL is in compiled C, it could easily outrun pure Ruby clients.
Curl is a means of issuing HTTP (or HTTPs) requests from the command line.
You don't want to use CURL in Rails. You want to issue HTTP requests from within Rails. Using curl is okay, it's one way to issue HTTP requests from with Rails.
We can refine that down further to, you want to issue HTTP requests from Ruby. Narrowing/distilling down to the most basic version of the problem is always good to do.
We knew all this already probably - still worth writing down for us all to benefit from!
Use HTTP in Ruby
We want to use a HTTP Client. There are many but, for this I'm going to use Faraday (a gem) 'cause I like it.
You've made a good start with Ruby's built in NET:HTTP but I prefer Faraday's DSL. It results in more readable and extendable code.
So, here is a class! I barely tested this so, use as a starting point. Make sure you write some unit tests for it.
# This is a Plain Old Ruby Object (PORO)
# It will work in Rails but, isn't Rails specific.
require 'faraday' # This require is needed as it's a PORO.
class InstagramOAuth
attr_reader :code
# The code parameter will likely change frequently, so we provide it
# at run time.
def initialize(code)
#code = code
end
def get_token
connection.get('/oauth/access_token') do |request|
request.params[:code] = code
end
end
private
def connection
#connection ||= Faraday.new(
url: instagram_api_url,
params: params,
ssl: { :ca_path => https_certificate_location }
)
end
def instagram_api_url
#url ||= 'https://api.instagram.com'
end
# You need to find out where these are for your self.
def https_certificate_location
'/usr/lib/ssl/certs'
end
def params
# These params likely won't change to often so we set a write time
# in the class like this.
{
client_id: '126581840734567',
client_secret: '678ebe1b3b8081231aab27dff738313',
grant_type: 'authorization_code',
redirect_uri: 'https://uri.com/'
}
end
end
# How do we use it? Like so
# Your big old authorisation code from your question
code = 'AQBi4L2Ohy3Q_N3V48OygFm0zb3gEsL985x5TIyDTNDJaLs93BwXiT1tyGYWoCg1HlBDU'\
'7ZRjUfLL5HVlzw4G-7YkVEjp6Id2WuqOz0Ylt-k2ADwDC5upH3CGVtHgf2udQhLlfDnQz'\
'5NPsnmxjg4bW3PJpW5FaQs8fn1ztgYp-ssfAf6IRt2-sI45ZC8cqqr5K_12y0Nq_Joh0H'\
'-tTfVyNLKatIxHPCqRDb3tfqgmxim1Q'
# This will return a Faraday::Response object but, what is in it?
response = InstagramOAuth.new(code).get_token
# Now we've got a Hash
response_hash = response.to_hash
puts 'Request made'
puts "Request full URL: #{response_hash[:url]}"
puts "HTTP status code: #{response_hash[:status]}"
puts "HTTP response body: #{response_hash[:body]}"
When I ran the snippet above I got the following. The class works, you just need to tweak the request params until you get what you want. Hopefully the class demonstrates how to send HTTP requests in Ruby/Rails.
Request made
Request full URL: https://api.instagram.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=126581840734567&client_secret=678ebe1b3b8081231aab27dff738313&code=AQBi4L2Ohy3Q_N3V48OygFm0zb3gEsL985x5TIyDTNDJaLs93BwXiT1tyGYWoCg1HlBDU7ZRjUfLL5HVlzw4G-7YkVEjp6Id2WuqOz0Ylt-k2ADwDC5upH3CGVtHgf2udQhLlfDnQz5NPsnmxjg4bW3PJpW5FaQs8fn1ztgYp-ssfAf6IRt2-sI45ZC8cqqr5K_12y0Nq_Joh0H-tTfVyNLKatIxHPCqRDb3tfqgmxim1Q&grant_type=authorization_code&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Furi.com%2F
HTTP status code: 405
HTTP response body:
Additional Reading
. https://lostisland.github.io/faraday/usage/
. https://github.com/lostisland/faraday/wiki/Setting-up-SSL-certificates