EDAN API Ruby Library

This is for an initial exploration of a Smithsonian API.

Use of this library requires a name & password and is currently for developers who are registered volunteers.

Contact Info: Sarah Allen allensa@si.edu

Usage

gem install edanrb
export EDANUSER=SECRETNAME
export EDANPASS=SECRETPASS

gem install json
irb
> require 'edan'
> eq = EDANQuery.new('myapp')
> res = eq.request('q=art&wt=json')
> res.code
 => "200"

> require 'json'
> JSON.parse(res.body)
 => {"responseHeader" ...

Using the Gem with Rails 3.x+

Add edanrb gem to your Gemfile:

gem 'edanrb'

Then, run the 'bundle install' command.

Add authentication settings:

There are two ways to do this, you can create a file in your /config/initializer directory:

config/initializer/edanrb_settings.rb:

# specify the username and password for the EDAN API:
ENV['EDANUSER'] = "this_is_my_username"
ENV['EDANPASS'] = "this_is_my_password"

Alternatively, you can do this from the command line when you start your rails server if you do not want to commit auth info for security reasons.

> EDANUSER="this_is_my_username" EDANPASS="this_is_my_password" rails server

That's it! Now you're ready to rock with EDAN.

Don't forget to add the 'require' statement to your controllers or other locations where you'll be calling edanrb methods:

require 'edan'

def hello_edan_world
   eq = EDANQuery.new('myapp')
   res = eq.request('q=art&wt=json')
   json_res = JSON.parse(res.body)
end