# Sending a fire&forget http request in a model class **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [November 19, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-a-fire-forget-http-request-in-a-model-class/153626 "2008-11-19T15:23:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-a-fire-forget-http-request-in-a-model-class/153626/1 "2008-11-19T15:23:11Z")
I know this is bad mvc, but i have a model class that needs to send a request off to a web service. At the moment i’m building a request string with url and params, and then doing a ‘system’ call to call curl with the url. This feels pretty dirty though. Is there a nicer way to just fire off an http request? thanks max ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-a-fire-forget-http-request-in-a-model-class/153626/2 "2008-11-19T15:37:26Z")
On 19 Nov 2008, at 14:23, Max W. wrote: > I know this is bad mvc, but i have a model class that needs to send a > request off to a web service. At the moment i’m building a request > string with url and params, and then doing a ‘system’ call to call > curl > with the url. This feels pretty dirty though. Is there a nicer way > to > just fire off an http request? net/http or similar ? Fred ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-a-fire-forget-http-request-in-a-model-class/153626/3 "2008-11-20T02:13:19Z")
Hey, I would check this out: [http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/net/http/rdoc/index.html](http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/net/http/rdoc/index.html) Syntax looks something like: http = Net::HTTP.new(“[www.google.com](http://www.google.com)”) headers, body = http.get() Hope that help Jim Englert [http://www.jim-rants.com/coding-blog/](http://www.jim-rants.com/coding-blog/) On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 9:36 AM, Frederick C. \< ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 11:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-a-fire-forget-http-request-in-a-model-class/153626/4 "2008-11-20T11:15:19Z")
On 20 Nov 2008, at 09:38, Max W. wrote: > l\_content=‘[http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/show?encoded=MTE4MiZpdCdzIHdlZG5lc2RheQ==](http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/show?encoded=MTE4MiZpdCdzIHdlZG5lc2RheQ==)’ > -d l\_email=‘removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid’ \ > > http = Net::HTTP.new(“#{domain}”) > headers, body = http.get(“#{path}?#{params}”) Yuck. would be a lot easier to take a hash of params (ie {‘l\_cid’ =\> ‘1106’, ‘l\_key’ =\> ‘cg3608898b74a4c688787ab479b8bb9f’, …} and then call to\_query on it. Net::HTTP will also do that for you, with something like response = Net::HTTP.start(host, port) do |http| get = Net::HTTP::Get.new path get.form\_data = some\_hash get.content\_type = “application/x-www-form-urlencoded” http.request get end Fred ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 10:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-a-fire-forget-http-request-in-a-model-class/153626/5 "2008-11-20T10:38:25Z")
Thanks Fred I’m not having any luck with it so far - this is the curl call i was making (with some changes to protect the innocent): curl [http://www.l-mail.biz/scripts/lia/lia.php](http://www.l-mail.biz/scripts/lia/lia.php) -d l\_cid=‘1106’ -d l\_key=‘cg3608898b74a4c688787ab479b8bb9f’ -d l\_content=‘[http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/show?encoded=MTE4MiZpdCdzIHdlZG5lc2RheQ==](http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/show?encoded=MTE4MiZpdCdzIHdlZG5lc2RheQ==)’ -d l\_pb\_url=‘[http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/confirm](http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/confirm)’ -d l\_sname=‘chazanga’ -d l\_rname=‘Max W.’ -d l\_rcname=‘chazanga’ -d l\_raddress1=‘Suites 17 & 18’ -d l\_raddress2=‘9-12 Middle Street’ -d l\_rcity=‘Brighton’ -d l\_rpostcode=‘BN1 3TN’ -d l\_rcountry=‘3’ -d l\_email=‘removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid’ -d l\_fb\_emails=‘1’ -d p\_user\_id=‘2054’ So, when i tried to use Net::HTTP i was trying to deal with this massive params string. I split it up like so: domain = “www.l-mail.biz” path = “/scripts/lia/lia.php” params = “l\_cid=1106&l\_key=cg3608898b74a4c688787ab479b8bb9f&l\_content=[http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/show?encoded=MTE4MiZpdCdzIHdlZG5lc2RheQ==&l\_pb\_url=http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/confirm&l\_sname=chazanga&l\_rname=Max-Williams&l\_rcname=chazanga&l\_raddress1=Suites-17-18&l\_raddress2=9-12-Middle-Street&l\_rcity=Brighton&l\_rpostcode=BN1-3TN&l\_rcountry=3&l\_email=removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid&l\_fb\_emails=1&p\_user\_id=2054](http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/show?encoded=MTE4MiZpdCdzIHdlZG5lc2RheQ==&l_pb_url=http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/confirm&l_sname=chazanga&l_rname=Max-Williams&l_rcname=chazanga&l_raddress1=Suites-17-18&l_raddress2=9-12-Middle-Street&l_rcity=Brighton&l_rpostcode=BN1-3TN&l_rcountry=3&l_email=removed_email_address@domain.invalid&l_fb_emails=1&p_user_id=2054)” The params string had spaces and & signs in it, so i just replaced them with safe characters temporarily while i played with Net::HTTP (with escaping them properly down for a later task). I tried this: http = Net::HTTP.new(“#{domain}”) headers, body = http.get(“#{path}?#{params}”) and got a 401 (Authorisation required) error back. I think maybe my params weren’t going through properly. ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 11:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-a-fire-forget-http-request-in-a-model-class/153626/6 "2008-11-20T11:57:36Z")
Thanks Fred… I totally agree, i actually build up all the params in a hash anyway. Here it is in your recommended format. One of the params has the complication of actually being a full url with params itself. Curl seems to deal happily with this, i’m guessing it escapes everything nicely. But trying this, i get the same 401 error back (#\). host = “www.l-mail.biz” port = 80 path = “/scripts/lia/lia.php” param\_hash = { :l\_cid =\> ‘1106’, :l\_key =\> ‘cg3608898b74a4c688787ab479b8bb9f’, :l\_content =\> ‘[http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/show?encoded=MTE4MiZpdCdzIHdlZG5lc2RheQ==](http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/show?encoded=MTE4MiZpdCdzIHdlZG5lc2RheQ==)’, :l\_pb\_url =\> ‘[http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/confirm](http://ir.chazanga.com/letter/confirm)’, :l\_sname =\> ‘chazanga’, :l\_rname =\> ‘Max W.’, :l\_rcname =\> ‘chazanga’, :l\_raddress1 =\> ‘Suites 17 & 18’, :l\_raddress2 =\> ‘9-12 Middle Street’, :l\_rcity =\> ‘Brighton’, :l\_rpostcode =\> ‘BN1 3TN’, :l\_rcountry =\> ‘3’, :l\_email =\> ‘removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid’, :l\_fb\_emails =\> ‘1’, :p\_user\_id =\> ‘2054’ } response = Net::HTTP.start(host, port) do |http| get = Net::HTTP::Get.new path get.form\_data = param\_hash get.content\_type = “application/x-www-form-urlencoded” http.request get end