Respond to REST-request with image-file (no XML etc.)

Rails
1

Hi!

I’m using REST to serve content (images and SWFs) to a flash-file.
Depending on the IP of the user, I would like to serve different
content. To get the IP I use 'request.remote_ip, followed by an if
statement to return the correct content.

What I don’t know is how do I serve just the content (no XML, just
content.jpg) as a reply from my Rails-controller? The content is not
stored in a database, but in my public directory.

def show

ip = request.remote_ip

if ip=x
  return '/content/hello.jpg'
else
  return '/content/goodbye.jpg'
end

respond_to do |format|
  format.html # bbprivat.html.erb
  format.xml  { render :xml => @ip }
end

end

Many thanks for all the help I can get!

2

Hi Gustav,

you can use the send_file command to return binary data to the client

e.g.
respond_to do |format|
format.html { ip == x ? send_file ‘/content/hello.jpg’, :filename =>
‘hello.jpg’ : send_file ‘/content/goodbye.jpg’, :filename =>
‘goodbye.jpg’ }
end

think that will work , you might want to register a new content type
for the respond_to block so it ‘responds_to’ .jpg as well.

3

respond_to do |format|
format.html { ip == x ? send_file ‘/content/hello.jpg’, :filename =>
‘hello.jpg’ : send_file ‘/content/goodbye.jpg’, :filename =>
‘goodbye.jpg’ }
end

I’ve tried:

def show
ip = request.remote_ip
pattern = x

if pattern.match(ip)
@file = ‘/folder/y.swf’
else
@file = ‘/folder/x.swf’
end

respond_to do |format|
format.html { send_file @file }
end
end

This returns a returns a “Cannot read file /folder/y.swf” error message.

I’ve also tried:

respond_to do |format|
format.html { render :file => @file }
end

This returns a “No such file or directory - /folder/y.swf”, although
“http://localhost:3000/folder/y.swf” works just fine.

When substituting the @file-construct for:

format.html { send_file ‘/folder/y.swf’, :filename => ‘y.swf’ }

but get the same result…

think that will work , you might want to register a new content type
for the respond_to block so it ‘responds_to’ .jpg as well.

Where do I register new content types in the respond_to-block? I’m a
REST-noob, in case that wasn’t obvious :wink:

Many thanks!

g.

4

This returns a returns a “Cannot read file /folder/y.swf” error message.

I solved it by using the full system-file path:

render :file => ‘/Users/gustav/Sites/sandbox/public/folder/y.swf’

Anyone know how make Rails understand to use the public-folder as root?

Also, since I get plenty of weird characters on screen, rather than the
actual swf-file, I suppose I need to register swf to work with the
respond_to block.

send_file ‘/Users/gustav/Sites/sandbox/public/folder/y.swf’

works just as good for that matter, although I get prompted to save file
to disk.