Howto rebuild a object from a received xml hash structure?

Rails
1

im my web server app , i have an action to be used as a REST web
service

GET /user/membership.xml?email=emailaddress

def membership
@user = User.find_by_email(params[:email])
respond_to do |format|
format.xml { render :xml => @user.to_xml( :only =>
[ :first_name, :last_name, :display_name, :membership_type,
:membership_at], :skip_types
=> true)}
end
end

my client web app get it :

@referee = Referee.new(params[:referee])
url = "http://#{WWW_HOST}/user/membership.xml?

email=#{params[:referee][:email]}"
result = Net::HTTP.get(URI(url))
data = XmlSimple.xml_in(result)

------------ GOT IT BACK
data
=> {“last-name”=>[{“nil”=>“true”}], “display-name”=>[“chane850”],
“first-name”=>[{“nil”=>“true”}], “membership-
at”=>[“2007-03-28T21:25:31Z”]}

how can I rebuild a membership object (not active record) from it, to
reuse it late
@membership = Membership.new
@membership.last_name = data ??? that’s the question !!!
…

thanks for your lights

Erwin

2

have you tried using the magic of activeresource (the web services bit
not just the nice routes and helpers)

try this link for starters. It’s a little out of date, but
activeresource has just got a whole lot better
http://ryandaigle.com/articles/2007/3/14/rest-activeresource

You should be able to just make a class that inherits from
ActiveResource::Base and it will interface nicely with your web server
app.

Joe