Speeding up Ruby code to make faster/more API calls - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have the following code:
list_entities = [{:phone => '0000000000', :name => 'Test', :"#i:type => '1'},{:phone => '1111111111', :name => 'Demo', :"#i:type => '1'}]
list_entities.each do |list_entity|
phone_contact = PhoneContact.create(list_entity.except(:"#i:type"))
add_record_response = api.add_record_to_list(phone_contact, "API Test")
if add_record_response[:add_record_to_list_response][:return][:list_records_inserted] != '0'
phone_contact.update(:loaded_at => Time.now)
end
end
This code is taking an array of hashes and creating a new phone_contact for each one. It then makes an api call (add_record_response) to do something with that phone_contact. If that api call is successful, it updates the loaded_at attribute for that specific phone_contact. Then it starts the loop over.
I am allowed something like 7200 api calls per hour with this service - However, I'm only able to make about 1 api call every 4 seconds right now.
Any thoughts on how I could speed this code block up to make faster api calls?

Answer 1

I would suggest using a thread pool. You can define a unit of work to be done and the number of threads you want to process the work on. This way you can get around the bottleneck of waiting for the server to response on each request. Maybe try something like (disclaimer: this was adapted from http://burgestrand.se/code/ruby-thread-pool/)
require 'thread'
class Pool
def initialize(size)
#size = size
#jobs = Queue.new
#pool = Array.new(#size) do |i|
Thread.new do
Thread.current[:id] = i
catch(:exit) do
loop do
job, args = #jobs.pop
job.call(*args)
end
end
end
end
end
def schedule(*args, &block)
#jobs << [block, args]
end
def shutdown
#size.times do
schedule { throw :exit }
end
#pool.map(&:join)
end
end
p = Pool.new(4)
list_entries.do |list_entry|
p.schedule do
phone_contact = PhoneContact.create(list_entity.except(:"#i:type"))
add_record_response = api.add_record_to_list(phone_contact, "API Test")
if add_record_response[:add_record_to_list_response][:return][:list_records_inserted] != '0'
phone_contact.update(:loaded_at => Time.now)
end
puts "Job #{i} finished by thread #{Thread.current[:id]}"
end
at_exit { p.shutdown }
end