Issue with getting my API Call in Rails to properly display correctly in views (Using HTTParty)

Question

I am using HTTParty gem in Rails to make my API call and it has been successful. I receive no errors however after defining the variables in my controller I can not get my loops to produce anything.

If I type in <%= @variable %> it shows just the Active Record object which I expected. If I do the same but include variable.name it provides a string, but not exactly what I was hoping. I have followed several HTTParty tutorials and put in a lot of API research but I can't seem to get this figured out. I am trying to retrieve a list of snacks from an external API. Here is what I have (some of the things in my view is just to test).

API Call (I put in separate folder services):

    class SnackAPI
  include HTTParty
  base_uri 'https://api-snacks.nerderylabs.com/v1/'
  SNACK_ACCESS = "/snacks?ApiKey=#{ENV['SNACK_API_KEY']}"

  def get_snacks
    response = self.class.get(SNACK_ACCESS)
    JSON.parse(response.body)
  end
end

First time posting code snippets so not sure how to post in with proper indentation, but it is correct in my application.

Controller:

class SnacksController < ApplicationController
  def index
    @snacks = Snack.all
    @permanent_snacks = Snack.where(optional: false)
    @optional_snacks = Snack.where(optional: true)
  end
end

Model:

    class Snack < ApplicationRecord
  validates :name, presence: true
  validates_uniqueness_of :name
end

View (index.html.erb) in snacks folder:

    <h1> Welcome to SnaFoo! </h1>

<!-- I am attempting to get these loops to display each snack item included in the API but nothing appears -->

<% @permanent_snacks.each do |snack| %>
  <%= snack.name %>
<% end %>

<% @optional_snacks.each do |snack| %>
  <%= snack.name %>
<% end %>

<%= @snacks %>
<%= @optional_snacks %>
<%= @permanent_snacks %>

<br  />

Snack with name paramater (to test):

<%= @snacks.name %>

<!-- So it recognizes the fields and datatypes -->

Results in View: The objects themselves ( for each one. I expected this, it was just to test the API was retrieving info) For the <%= @snacks.name %> it outputs Snack so it is at least recognizing my fields and datatypes in my schema. The main issue is getting the loops to work and display each snack in the API.

I have tried for hours attempting to resolve this on my own but I'm at a point of frustration and would appreciate any help that could point me in the right direction.

If Schema is needed/helpful to help resolve this I can post that too.

Terminal output when I load page (usually code on Ubuntu but am coding this on Windows due to some issues with my partition:

Started GET "/" for 10.0.2.2 at 2017-09-11 21:49:49 +0000 Cannot render console from 10.0.2.2! Allowed networks: 127.0.0.1, ::1, 127.0.0.0/127.255.255.255 Processing by SnacksController#index as HTML Rendering snacks/index.html.erb within layouts/application Snack Load (0.3ms) SELECT "snacks".* FROM "snacks" WHERE "snacks"."optional" = $1 [["optional", "f"]] Snack Load (0.5ms) SELECT "snacks".* FROM "snacks" WHERE "snacks"."optional" = $1 [["optional", "t"]] Rendered snacks/index.html.erb within layouts/application (3.5ms) Completed 200 OK in 401ms (Views: 374.1ms | ActiveRecord: 0.8ms)

Answer 1

Start by fixing the client:

# place this in /lib or app/clients as it is not a service object.
# app/clients/snack_api.rb
class SnackAPI
  include HTTParty
  base_uri 'https://api-snacks.nerderylabs.com/v1/'
  format :json

  def initialize(*opts)
    @options = opts.reverse_merge({
      ApiKey: ENV['SNACK_API_KEY']
    })
  end
  def get_snacks
    response = self.class.get('/snacks', @options)
  end
end

Use format :json instead of instead of parsing the JSON response manually. This is very important since if the API errors out and returns an empty response JSON.parse blows up:

irb(main):002:0> JSON.parse('')
JSON::ParserError: 745: unexpected token at ''

If you just want to display articles straight from the API you don't need a model:

class SnacksController < ApplicationController
  def index
    response = SnackAPI.get_snacks

    if response.success?
      @snacks = response[:snacks]
    else
      flash.now[:error] = "Could not fetch snacks"
      @snacks = []
    end
  end
end

Otherwise create a service object to consume the API:

# app/services/snack_import_service
class SnackImportService

  attr_accessor :client

  def intialize(client = nil, **opts)
    # this is a trick that lets you inject a spy or double in tests
    @client = client || SnackAPI.new(opts)
  end

  def perform
    response = client.get_snacks
    # Remember that HTTP requests can and will fail
    if response.success?
      response[:snacks].map do |data|
        Snack.find_or_create_by!(name: data[:name])
      end
    else
      Rails.logger.error "SnackAPI request was unsuccessful #{response.code}"
    end
  end
end

Having this as a separate service object from the client is a good idea as it adheres to the single responsibility principle and lets you even extract out the client to a gem as a reusable component that is separate from your application logic.

class SnacksController < ApplicationController
  def index
    @snacks = SnackImportService.new.perform
    @permanent_snacks = Snack.where(optional: false)
    @optional_snacks = Snack.where(optional: true)
  end
end