How do I get and display JSON with HTTParty? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm new to Ruby on Rails and programming in general. So far I've successfully used my console to return JSON data from an API but I can't seem to make it work on my local server.
In the console I entered:
httparty "http://rubygems.org/api/v1/versions/httparty.json"
and it returned the JSON after I managed to install/configure everything.
So then in the console I wrote:
rails new Catalog
rails generate controller new index
I followed the tutorial to get <h1>Hello, Rails!</h1> to display on my page when I go to:
http://localhost:3000/
Now I am trying to get the JSON data returned and display on that same page where it says "Hello, Rails".
In index.html.erb I have:
<h1>Hello, Rails</h1>
<%= #result %>
In home_controller.rb I have:
class HomeController < ApplicationController
def get_catalog
include HTTParty
#result = HTTParty.get("http://rubygems.org/api/v1/versions/httparty.json")
end
end
In routes.rb I have:
Catalog::Application.routes.draw do
get "home/index"
root :to => 'home#index'
end
Nothing appears under "Hello, Rails" when I go to the page.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around how all of this stuff interacts with each other. Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong here perhaps?
--- Update
I'm trying to output just the product names into li elements. My files now are:
index.html.erb:
<ul>
<% #http_party_json.each do |event| %>
<% event.each do |e| %>
<li><%=h e['Products']['Name'] %></li>
<% end %>
<% end %>
</ul>
controller:
class HomeController < ApplicationController
def index
#response = HTTParty.get("myURL")
#http_party_json = JSON.parse(#response.body)
end
end
The error I am getting is:
undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass
Extracted source (around line #5):
2: <ul>
3: <% #http_party_json.each do |event| %>
4: <% event.each do |e| %>
5: <li><%=h e['Products']['Name'] %></li>
6: <% end %>
7: <% end %>
8: </ul>
When I take off the ['Name'] I get JSON starting with:
[{"Name"=>"3x4 Vinyl Magnet", "Description"=>"Made of durable high-gloss vinyl. Measures 3x4 inches and has rounded corners. Waterproof and scratch resistant."
Why can't I target ['Name'] to get just the product names?

Answer 1

HTTParty parses XML/JSON responses for you. Simply use parsed_response to get it:
#response = HTTParty.get("URL").parsed_response

Answer 2

HTTParty.get returns an object of the type HTTParty::Response, which is documented in HTTParty (Check out the examples.)
There is a nice helper method on HTTParty::Response called `#parsed_response. This returns the JSON string parsed into a Hash or Array:
HTTParty.get("URL").parsed_response
Alternatively, in order to get the body of this message, you can call #result.body. This returns a string, which you can safely output to your page as you did. However, I'm guessing you want to do more with it than just output it to a page.
In order to parse this into a hash/Array that you can use/manipulate/return as true JSON you would do something like:
http_party_json = JSON.parse(#response.body)
So with this, you could do something like the following in your controller if you wanted to be able to return JSON:
#response = HTTParty.get("http://rubygems.org/api/v1/versions/httparty.json").parsed_response
respond_to do |format|
format.json { render :json => JSON.parse(#result) }
format.html { render "index.html.erb" }
end
Updated answer based on your updated information:
It appears as though e['Products'] returns an array (notice the square brackets on the outside.) So, if you are only expecting one you could do:
e['Products'][0]['Name']
If it might return multiple products, you might, instead, need to account for the possibility of many products and use an each block:
e['Products'].each do |product|
#do something with product['Name']
end
It just depends on your needs for the app.