# Is ActioveResource suitable for use eBay/PayPal api's?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-actioveresource-suitable-for-use-ebay-paypal-apis/183442>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 14, 2010, 10:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-actioveresource-suitable-for-use-ebay-paypal-apis/183442 "2010-02-14T10:55:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aftershock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@aftershock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aftershock)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 10:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-actioveresource-suitable-for-use-ebay-paypal-apis/183442/1 "2010-02-14T10:55:35Z")

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I’ve been having a play with eBay and PayPal API calls and am happily  
getting xml responses using Net::HTTP calls but now I’m wondering if I  
can use ActiveResource instead.

I’ve created a very basic ActiveResource class that has self.site set to  
a full url that returns xml data in a browser window

e.g.

[http://svcs.ebay.com/services/search/FindingService/v1?OPERATION-NAME=findItemsAdvanced&GLOBAL-ID=EBAY-GB&SERVICE\_VERSION=1.1.0&SECURITY-APPNAME=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&RESPONSE-DATA-FORMAT=XML&REST-PAYLOAD&keywords=bike&paginationInput.pageNumber=1&paginationInput.entriesPerPage=5](http://svcs.ebay.com/services/search/FindingService/v1?OPERATION-NAME=findItemsAdvanced&GLOBAL-ID=EBAY-GB&SERVICE_VERSION=1.1.0&SECURITY-APPNAME=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&RESPONSE-DATA-FORMAT=XML&REST-PAYLOAD&keywords=bike&paginationInput.pageNumber=1&paginationInput.entriesPerPage=5)

So I have a very basic active resource class that looks like this

class EbayResource \< ActieResource::Base  
self.site =  
“[http://svcs.ebay.com/services/search/FindingService/v1?OPERATION-NAME=findItemsAdvanced&GLOBAL-ID=EBAY-GB&SERVICE\_VERSION=1.1.0&SECURITY-APPNAME=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&RESPONSE-DATA-FORMAT=XML&REST-PAYLOAD&keywords=bike&paginationInput.pageNumber=1&paginationInput.entriesPerPage=5](http://svcs.ebay.com/services/search/FindingService/v1?OPERATION-NAME=findItemsAdvanced&GLOBAL-ID=EBAY-GB&SERVICE_VERSION=1.1.0&SECURITY-APPNAME=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&RESPONSE-DATA-FORMAT=XML&REST-PAYLOAD&keywords=bike&paginationInput.pageNumber=1&paginationInput.entriesPerPage=5)”  
end

From the console I just try calling .find(:all) and .get(:all) but get  
302 redirected responses with page not found messages.

Like I say with the correct SECURITY-APPNAME param set it works fine in  
a browser just not from an ActiveResource class.

Obviously I could be doing this totally wrong and searching through  
railscasts, Rails docs and other resources has turned up noting that I  
can make any sense of and it makes me wonder if ActiveResource is  
suitable for non REST style api calls.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

James

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aftershock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@aftershock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aftershock)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-actioveresource-suitable-for-use-ebay-paypal-apis/183442/2 "2010-02-14T14:48:52Z")

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From this page:  
[http://www.therailsway.com/2007/9/3/using-activeresource-to-consume-web-services](http://www.therailsway.com/2007/9/3/using-activeresource-to-consume-web-services)

> 1. The service must understand Rails-style REST URLs. (e.g. “POST  
> /credit\_cards.xml” to create a credit card, etc.)
> 2. The service must respond with a single XML-serialized object  
> (Rails-style).
> 3. The service must make appropriate use of HTTP status codes (404 if  
> the requested record cannot be found, 422 if any validations fail, etc.).

2010/2/14 James W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)