heyPanda

My friend Evan Long wrote a nifty little article on his blog called RESTful Python, which included some code to easily create APIs for RESTful web services. Not to be outdone, I wrote my own. Here's the example usage:

                  require 'lib/auto_api'
                  
                  class TwitterClient < AutoApi::Base
                    authenticate "username", "password"
                    service_url "http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline.{format}"
                    remote_method :friends_timeline, {:default_parameters => {:format => "json"}}
                  
                    service_url "http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline.{format}"
                    remote_method :user_timeline, {:default_parameters => {:format => "json"}}
                  end
                  
                  twitter_client = TwitterClient.new
                  twitter_client.friends_timeline(:format => "xml") # returns json for friends timeline
                  twitter_client.user_timeline # returns json for user
                  
                  

Alternate construction for the same API:

                  
                  class AlternateTwitterClient < AutoApi::Base
                    service_url "http://twitter.com/statuses/{remote_method}.{format}"
                    remote_method :friends_timeline, {:default_parameters => {:format => "json", :remote_method => "friends_timeline"}}
                    remote_method :user_timeline, {:default_parameters => {:format => "json", :remote_method => "user_timeline"}}  
                  end
                  
                  alternate_twitter_client = AlternateTwitterClient.new
                  # You can authenticate on a per-instance basis as well
                  alternate_twitter_client.authenticate("username", "password")
                  alternate_twitter_client.friends_timeline
                  
                  

And here's a Pownce client

                  class PownceClient < AutoApi::Base
                    service_url "http://api.pownce.com/2.0/note_lists/{username}.{format}"
                    remote_method :pownce_note_list, {:default_parameters => {:format => "json"}, :required_parameters => [:username]}
                  end
                  
                  pownce_client = PownceClient.new
                  pownce_client.pownce_note_list(:username => "sintaks") # returns my Pownce note list
                  
                  

I'll throw the code somewhere. Or maybe not. It was mostly an academic exercise for me. I doubt anyone would find it useful. =)

Evan's code is considerably cleaner, partially due to the fact that Python has built-in decorators. Mine are kinda... home-brewed.

Update: I guess it wouldn't be any fun if I didn't show me posting a status update:

                  
                  class AlternateTwitterClient < AutoApi::Base
                    authenticate "username", "password"
                    service_url "http://twitter.com/statuses/{remote_method}.{format}"
                    remote_method :friends_timeline, {:default_parameters => {:format => "json", :remote_method => "friends_timeline"}}
                    remote_method :user_timeline, {:default_parameters => {:format => "json", :remote_method => "user_timeline"}}  
                    remote_method :update_status, {:default_parameters => {:format => "json", :remote_method => "update"}, :required_parameters => [:status], :request_method => :post}
                  
                  end
                  
                  alternate_twitter_client = AlternateTwitterClient.new
                  alternate_twitter_client.update_status :status => "Testing AutoApi: http://heypanda.com/posts/44-Introducing-AutoApi"
                  
                  # And you can view this update, which I actually made, here: http://twitter.com/sintaks/statuses/876233423