This is a Rails plugin for the StarRez Web Services REST API and Report API. The StarRezApi plugin leverages Ruby's metaprogramming powers to dynamically generate classes on the fly using a combination of module mix-ins and dynamic method assignments.

The usage is certainly specific in terms of what you are attempting to do and your mileage may vary for certain. Please review the source files for StarRezApi and StarRezReports for more specific details on usage. All attempts have been made to mirror ActiveRecords core functionality.

You will need to provide your web services URL in the config.yml file. You can provide a different URL For each Rails environment.

The HTTParty and XML Simple gems are required for this plugin. Install them with:

$ gem install httparty
$ gem install xml-simple

You'll need to create a config/starrez.yml configuration file. It should look something like this, replacing {server} with your actual address.

development:
  base_uri: https://{server}/StarRezPortalREST/services/
  
production:
  base_uri: https://{server}/StarRezPortalREST/services/
  
test:
  base_uri: https://{server}/StarRezPortalREST/services/

You must require the StarRezAPI module before you can use it, there is no hook method at the moment. You can do this in the models, in your environment, or wherever else you might want to throw it. It's a one-liner

require 'starrez_api'

Dynamic Classes To dynamically define the StarRez tables your application will use you must load them somehow. Rather than creating a bunch of empty class files you can create a method that will create these classes on the fly.

$ app/controllers/application_controller.rb

# Define a before_filter for loading StarRez classes
def create_starrez_classes
  %w(Entry Room RoomSpace).each do |table|
      unless Object.const_defined?(table)
	      eval "class #{table}; include StarRezApi; include HTTParty::Icebox; end"
      end
  end
end

$ app/controllers/entry_controller.rb

# Run our before filter
before_filter :create_starrez_classes

# Display an Entry
def show
  e = Entry.find(params[:id])
end

Standard Model You can create a model definition file in the app/models/ folder that you can the use to expand and add additional methods, such as explicitly defined relationships with other models. A model definition would look something like this.

$ app/models/entry.rb

class Entry
  include StarRezApi
  
  module ClassMethods
    def full_name
      self.name_first + " " + self.name_last
    end
  end
  extend ClassMethods      
end    

Don't forget, YMMV with this gem. It works for us but there could be a few things that need to change for your install. I'd encourage you to fork this repo and hack away.

Copyright (c) 2011 Daniel Reedy, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, released under the MIT license