POSTing file as multipart/form-data to a Rails API

Question

RoR noob here... :)

I need to create a Rails API that clients can call and send an XML file through a POST request.

I've create my route like this:

  namespace :api do
      namespace :v1 do
        resource :report
      end
  end

and my controller like this:

class Api::V1::ReportsController < ApplicationController

  respond_to :xml

  def create
    @report_submission = ReportSubmission.create :login => params[:login],
                                                 :status => :success
    respond_with(@report_submission)
  end
end

What do I need to do in the controller to receive the XML file that the client will be posting, and then read is content so I can ultimately put it in the database?

How can I test that?

I've created a sandbox project to try this out and got stuck... no idea what to do next. I've pushed it up here:

https://github.com/claudiolassala/api-samples/

Any help will be just awesome! end

Answer 1

After doing some more research, I've managed to get that working. I've updated my repository on GitHub with the solution.

The main changes were to modify my controller so to read the contents of the file being posted:

class Api::V1::ReportsController < ApplicationController

  respond_to :xml

  def create

    @report_submission = ReportSubmission.create :login => params[:login],
                                                 :status => :success,
                                                 :results => read_file_data(params[:reportxml])
    respond_with(@report_submission)
  end

  private
    def read_file_data(file)
      xml_contents = ""
      if file.respond_to?(:read)
        xml_contents = file.read
      elsif file.respond_to?(:path)
        xml_contents = File.read(file.path)
      else
        logger.error "Bad file_data: #{file.class.name}: #{file.inspect}"
      end
      xml_contents
    end
end

And I've fixed my Cucumber step that performs the post, changing it to this:

When /^I send a POST request containing the file$/ do
  @login = "some-login"
  @file_path = "#{::Rails.root.to_s}/features/step_definitions/test_report.xml"

  post "api/v1/report.xml?login=#{@login}",
       :reportxml => Rack::Test::UploadedFile.new(@file_path, 'text/xml')
end

Please let me know whether there's any better way to do this. Thanks!