Is there a more user friendly alternative to Net::HTTP for interacting with REST APIs?

http, rest, ruby

Solution

If you only have to deal with REST, the rest-client library is fantastic.

If the APIs you're using aren't completely RESTful - or even if they are - HTTParty is really worth checking out. It simplifies using REST APIs, as well as non-RESTful web APIs. Check out this code (copied from the above link):

require 'rubygems'
require 'httparty'

class Representative
  include HTTParty
  format :xml

  def self.find_by_zip(zip)
    get('http://whoismyrepresentative.com/whoismyrep.php', :query => {:zip => zip})
  end
end

puts Representative.find_by_zip(46544).inspect
# {"result"=>{"n"=>"1", "rep"=>{"name"=>"Joe Donnelly", "district"=>"2", "office"=>"1218 Longworth", "phone"=>"(202) 225-3915", "link"=>"http://donnelly.house.gov/", "state"=>"IN"}}}

Problem

Original source