rest-client

Simple HTTP and REST client for Ruby, inspired by microframework syntax for specifying actions.

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Quick Overview

Rest-client is a simple HTTP and REST client for Ruby, inspired by microframework syntax for specifying actions. It provides a straightforward and intuitive way to interact with RESTful APIs, supporting various HTTP methods and offering features like automatic parsing of JSON and XML responses.

Pros

Easy to use and intuitive API
Supports various HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.)
Automatic parsing of JSON and XML responses
Flexible configuration options for requests

Cons

Limited advanced features compared to some other HTTP clients
May have performance overhead for high-volume requests
Documentation could be more comprehensive
Less actively maintained compared to some alternatives

Code Examples

Simple GET request:

require 'rest-client'

response = RestClient.get('https://api.example.com/users')
puts response.body

POST request with JSON payload:

require 'rest-client'

response = RestClient.post('https://api.example.com/users',
  { name: 'John Doe', email: 'john@example.com' }.to_json,
  { content_type: :json, accept: :json }
)
puts response.code

PUT request with headers:

require 'rest-client'

response = RestClient.put('https://api.example.com/users/1',
  { name: 'Jane Doe' }.to_json,
  { content_type: :json, accept: :json, authorization: 'Bearer token123' }
)
puts response.headers

Getting Started

To use rest-client in your Ruby project, follow these steps:

Install the gem:

gem install rest-client

In your Ruby file, require the library:

require 'rest-client'

Make a simple request:

response = RestClient.get('https://api.example.com/users')
puts response.body

Now you're ready to start making HTTP requests with rest-client!

Competitor Comparisons

httparty

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:tada: Makes http fun again!

Pros of HTTParty

Simpler and more intuitive API for basic HTTP requests
Built-in support for parsing JSON and XML responses
Lightweight with fewer dependencies

Cons of HTTParty

Less flexible for complex scenarios or advanced HTTP features
Limited support for streaming responses
Fewer middleware options compared to Rest Client

Code Comparison

HTTParty:

response = HTTParty.get('https://api.example.com/users', 
  headers: { 'Authorization' => 'Bearer token' })
puts response.body, response.code

Rest Client:

response = RestClient.get('https://api.example.com/users', 
  { Authorization: 'Bearer token' })
puts response.body, response.code

Both libraries offer similar basic functionality for making HTTP requests. HTTParty provides a more straightforward approach for simple use cases, while Rest Client offers more advanced features and flexibility.

HTTParty is often preferred for its ease of use and built-in parsing capabilities, making it a good choice for projects with straightforward API interactions. Rest Client, on the other hand, excels in more complex scenarios, offering greater control over request and response handling.

The choice between the two largely depends on the specific requirements of your project and personal preference. For simple API interactions, HTTParty may be more suitable, while Rest Client might be a better fit for projects requiring more advanced HTTP features or customization.

faraday

5,778

Simple, but flexible HTTP client library, with support for multiple backends.

Pros of Faraday

More flexible and customizable middleware stack
Better support for advanced HTTP features like streaming and parallel requests
Actively maintained with frequent updates and improvements

Cons of Faraday

Steeper learning curve due to its more complex architecture
Slightly more verbose syntax for simple requests
Requires additional configuration for some basic features

Code Comparison

REST Client:

require 'rest-client'
response = RestClient.get('https://api.example.com/users')
puts response.body

Faraday:

require 'faraday'
conn = Faraday.new(url: 'https://api.example.com')
response = conn.get('/users')
puts response.body

Both REST Client and Faraday are popular Ruby HTTP client libraries. REST Client offers a simpler, more straightforward API for basic HTTP requests, making it easier for beginners to use. It's ideal for quick scripts and simple API interactions.

Faraday, on the other hand, provides a more powerful and flexible approach to HTTP requests. It allows for easy customization of the request/response cycle through its middleware stack, making it suitable for more complex applications and advanced use cases.

While REST Client's syntax is more concise for simple requests, Faraday's approach allows for better separation of concerns and easier testing. Faraday also has better support for features like request/response streaming and parallel requests, which can be crucial for certain applications.

typhoeus

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Typhoeus wraps libcurl in order to make fast and reliable requests.

Pros of Typhoeus

Faster performance due to parallel HTTP requests and libcurl usage
Better support for advanced HTTP features like streaming and multipart uploads
More flexible request options and configurations

Cons of Typhoeus

Steeper learning curve and more complex API
Requires libcurl dependency, which may not be available on all systems
Less intuitive for simple, straightforward HTTP requests

Code Comparison

Rest-client example:

require 'rest-client'
response = RestClient.get('https://api.example.com/users')
puts response.body

Typhoeus example:

require 'typhoeus'
request = Typhoeus::Request.new('https://api.example.com/users')
response = request.run
puts response.body

Both Rest-client and Typhoeus are popular Ruby HTTP client libraries, but they cater to different use cases. Rest-client is known for its simplicity and ease of use, making it ideal for basic HTTP requests and quick prototyping. It has a more intuitive API and is generally easier for beginners to grasp.

Typhoeus, on the other hand, excels in performance-critical scenarios and complex HTTP operations. It leverages libcurl for efficient parallel requests and offers more advanced features. However, this comes at the cost of a steeper learning curve and increased complexity.

Choose Rest-client for simpler projects or when ease of use is a priority. Opt for Typhoeus when performance and advanced HTTP capabilities are crucial to your application's success.

insomnia

35,447

The open-source, cross-platform API client for GraphQL, REST, WebSockets, SSE and gRPC. With Cloud, Local and Git storage.

Pros of Insomnia

User-friendly GUI for API testing and development
Supports a wide range of authentication methods and protocols
Offers team collaboration features and cloud sync

Cons of Insomnia

Requires installation and may consume more system resources
Limited scripting capabilities compared to command-line tools
Some advanced features are only available in paid plans

Code Comparison

REST Client (Ruby):

require 'rest-client'

response = RestClient.get 'https://api.example.com/users'
puts response.body

Insomnia (JavaScript):

const axios = require('axios');

axios.get('https://api.example.com/users')
  .then(response => console.log(response.data))
  .catch(error => console.error(error));

Key Differences

REST Client is a Ruby library for making HTTP requests, while Insomnia is a full-featured GUI application for API testing and development.
REST Client is more suitable for programmatic use and automation, whereas Insomnia excels in manual testing and exploration of APIs.
Insomnia provides a visual interface for organizing and managing API requests, while REST Client requires writing code for each request.
REST Client can be easily integrated into Ruby projects, while Insomnia is language-agnostic and can be used with any programming language or framework.

Both tools have their strengths and are suited for different use cases, with REST Client being more developer-centric and Insomnia catering to a broader audience including non-developers.

postman-app-support

5,882

Postman is an API platform for building and using APIs. Postman simplifies each step of the API lifecycle and streamlines collaboration so you can create better APIs—faster.

Pros of Postman App Support

Comprehensive API development environment with a user-friendly GUI
Extensive collaboration features for team-based API development
Robust testing and automation capabilities

Cons of Postman App Support

Steeper learning curve for beginners compared to simpler REST clients
Resource-intensive application, may be overkill for basic API testing
Requires installation and regular updates

Code Comparison

Rest Client:

require 'rest-client'
response = RestClient.get 'http://example.com/api'
puts response.body

Postman (using Newman CLI):

newman run collection.json -e environment.json

Additional Notes

Rest Client is a lightweight Ruby library for making HTTP requests, while Postman is a full-featured API development platform. Rest Client is ideal for developers who prefer programmatic API interactions, whereas Postman offers a more visual and interactive approach to API testing and development.

Postman provides a wider range of features, including request history, environment variables, and team collaboration tools. However, Rest Client integrates more seamlessly with Ruby projects and offers a simpler, code-based approach to API interactions.

Choose Rest Client for quick, programmatic API requests in Ruby projects. Opt for Postman when you need a comprehensive API development environment with collaboration features and a graphical interface.

axios

106,558

Promise based HTTP client for the browser and node.js

Pros of axios

Browser and Node.js support, allowing for universal JavaScript applications
Built-in request and response interceptors for easier request/response manipulation
Automatic request and response transformations (e.g., JSON parsing)

Cons of axios

Larger bundle size compared to rest-client
Steeper learning curve due to more advanced features
Less Ruby-like syntax, which may be less intuitive for Ruby developers

Code comparison

rest-client:

RestClient.get 'http://example.com/resource'
RestClient.post 'http://example.com/resource', {param1: 'value1'}

axios:

axios.get('http://example.com/resource')
axios.post('http://example.com/resource', {param1: 'value1'})

Key differences

rest-client is primarily for Ruby, while axios is for JavaScript
axios offers more advanced features like request cancellation and automatic transforms
rest-client has a simpler API, making it easier to use for basic HTTP requests
axios provides better support for modern web development practices and frameworks

Use cases

Choose rest-client for Ruby projects or when simplicity is preferred
Opt for axios in JavaScript applications, especially when working with complex APIs or building isomorphic apps

Community and ecosystem

axios has a larger community and more frequent updates
rest-client has been around longer and is well-established in the Ruby ecosystem
Both projects have good documentation and active maintenance

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README

REST Client -- simple DSL for accessing HTTP and REST resources

A simple HTTP and REST client for Ruby, inspired by the Sinatra's microframework style of specifying actions: get, put, post, delete.

Main page: https://github.com/rest-client/rest-client
Mailing list: https://groups.io/g/rest-client

New mailing list

We have a new email list for announcements, hosted by Groups.io.

Subscribe on the web: https://groups.io/g/rest-client
Subscribe by sending an email: mailto:rest-client+subscribe@groups.io
Open discussion subgroup: https://groups.io/g/rest-client+discuss

The old Librelist mailing list is defunct, as Librelist appears to be broken and not accepting new mail. The old archives are still up, but have been imported into the new list archives as well. http://librelist.com/browser/rest.client

Requirements

MRI Ruby 2.0 and newer are supported. Alternative interpreters compatible with 2.0+ should work as well.

Earlier Ruby versions such as 1.8.7, 1.9.2, and 1.9.3 are no longer supported. These versions no longer have any official support, and do not receive security updates.

The rest-client gem depends on these other gems for usage at runtime:

There are also several development dependencies. It's recommended to use bundler to manage these dependencies for hacking on rest-client.

Upgrading to rest-client 2.0 from 1.x

Users are encouraged to upgrade to rest-client 2.0, which cleans up a number of API warts and wrinkles, making rest-client generally more useful. Usage is largely compatible, so many applications will be able to upgrade with no changes.

Overview of significant changes:

requires Ruby >= 2.0
RestClient::Response objects are a subclass of String rather than a Frankenstein monster. And #body or #to_s return a true String object.
cleanup of exception classes, including new RestClient::Exceptions::Timeout
improvements to handling of redirects: responses and history are properly exposed
major changes to cookie support: cookie jars are used for browser-like behavior throughout
encoding: Content-Type charset response headers are used to automatically set the encoding of the response string
HTTP params: handling of GET/POST params is more consistent and sophisticated for deeply nested hash objects, and ParamsArray can be used to pass ordered params
improved proxy support with per-request proxy configuration, plus the ability to disable proxies set by environment variables
default request headers: rest-client sets Accept: */* and User-Agent: rest-client/...

See history.md for a more complete description of changes.

Usage: Raw URL

Basic usage:

require 'rest-client'

RestClient.get(url, headers={})

RestClient.post(url, payload, headers={})

In the high level helpers, only POST, PATCH, and PUT take a payload argument. To pass a payload with other HTTP verbs or to pass more advanced options, use RestClient::Request.execute instead.

More detailed examples:

require 'rest-client'

RestClient.get 'http://example.com/resource'

RestClient.get 'http://example.com/resource', {params: {id: 50, 'foo' => 'bar'}}

RestClient.get 'https://user:password@example.com/private/resource', {accept: :json}

RestClient.post 'http://example.com/resource', {param1: 'one', nested: {param2: 'two'}}

RestClient.post "http://example.com/resource", {'x' => 1}.to_json, {content_type: :json, accept: :json}

RestClient.delete 'http://example.com/resource'

>> response = RestClient.get 'http://example.com/resource'
=> <RestClient::Response 200 "<!doctype h...">
>> response.code
=> 200
>> response.cookies
=> {"Foo"=>"BAR", "QUUX"=>"QUUUUX"}
>> response.headers
=> {:content_type=>"text/html; charset=utf-8", :cache_control=>"private" ... }
>> response.body
=> "<!doctype html>\n<html>\n<head>\n    <title>Example Domain</title>\n\n ..."

RestClient.post( url,
  {
    :transfer => {
      :path => '/foo/bar',
      :owner => 'that_guy',
      :group => 'those_guys'
    },
     :upload => {
      :file => File.new(path, 'rb')
    }
  })

Passing advanced options

The top level helper methods like RestClient.get accept a headers hash as their last argument and don't allow passing more complex options. But these helpers are just thin wrappers around RestClient::Request.execute.

RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://example.com/resource',
                            timeout: 10)

RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://example.com/resource',
                            ssl_ca_file: 'myca.pem',
                            ssl_ciphers: 'AESGCM:!aNULL')

You can also use this to pass a payload for HTTP verbs like DELETE, where the RestClient.delete helper doesn't accept a payload.

RestClient::Request.execute(method: :delete, url: 'http://example.com/resource',
                            payload: 'foo', headers: {myheader: 'bar'})

Due to unfortunate choices in the original API, the params used to populate the query string are actually taken out of the headers hash. So if you want to pass both the params hash and more complex options, use the special key :params in the headers hash. This design may change in a future major release.

RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://example.com/resource',
                            timeout: 10, headers: {params: {foo: 'bar'}})

â GET http://example.com/resource?foo=bar

Multipart

Yeah, that's right! This does multipart sends for you!

RestClient.post '/data', :myfile => File.new("/path/to/image.jpg", 'rb')

This does two things for you:

Auto-detects that you have a File value sends it as multipart
Auto-detects the mime of the file and sets it in the HEAD of the payload for each entry

If you are sending params that do not contain a File object but the payload needs to be multipart then:

RestClient.post '/data', {:foo => 'bar', :multipart => true}

Usage: ActiveResource-Style

resource = RestClient::Resource.new 'http://example.com/resource'
resource.get

private_resource = RestClient::Resource.new 'https://example.com/private/resource', 'user', 'pass'
private_resource.put File.read('pic.jpg'), :content_type => 'image/jpg'

See RestClient::Resource module docs for details.

Usage: Resource Nesting

site = RestClient::Resource.new('http://example.com')
site['posts/1/comments'].post 'Good article.', :content_type => 'text/plain'

See RestClient::Resource docs for details.

Exceptions (see http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html)

for result codes between 200 and 207, a RestClient::Response will be returned
for result codes 301, 302 or 307, the redirection will be followed if the request is a GET or a HEAD
for result code 303, the redirection will be followed and the request transformed into a GET
for other cases, a RestClient::ExceptionWithResponse holding the Response will be raised; a specific exception class will be thrown for known error codes
call .response on the exception to get the server's response

>> RestClient.get 'http://example.com/nonexistent'
Exception: RestClient::NotFound: 404 Not Found

>> begin
     RestClient.get 'http://example.com/nonexistent'
   rescue RestClient::ExceptionWithResponse => e
     e.response
   end
=> <RestClient::Response 404 "<!doctype h...">

Other exceptions

While most exceptions have been collected under RestClient::RequestFailed aka RestClient::ExceptionWithResponse, there are a few quirky exceptions that have been kept for backwards compatibility.

RestClient will propagate up exceptions like socket errors without modification:

>> RestClient.get 'http://localhost:12345'
Exception: Errno::ECONNREFUSED: Connection refused - connect(2) for "localhost" port 12345

RestClient handles a few specific error cases separately in order to give better error messages. These will hopefully be cleaned up in a future major release.

RestClient::ServerBrokeConnection is translated from EOFError to give a better error message.

RestClient::SSLCertificateNotVerified is raised when HTTPS validation fails. Other OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError errors are raised as is.

Redirection

By default, rest-client will follow HTTP 30x redirection requests.

New in 2.0: RestClient::Response exposes a #history method that returns a list of each response received in a redirection chain.

>> r = RestClient.get('http://httpbin.org/redirect/2')
=> <RestClient::Response 200 "{\n  \"args\":...">

# see each response in the redirect chain
>> r.history
=> [<RestClient::Response 302 "<!DOCTYPE H...">, <RestClient::Response 302 "">]

# see each requested URL
>> r.request.url
=> "http://httpbin.org/get"
>> r.history.map {|x| x.request.url}
=> ["http://httpbin.org/redirect/2", "http://httpbin.org/relative-redirect/1"]

Manually following redirection

To disable automatic redirection, set :max_redirects => 0.

New in 2.0: Prior versions of rest-client would raise RestClient::MaxRedirectsReached, with no easy way to access the server's response. In 2.0, rest-client raises the normal RestClient::ExceptionWithResponse as it would with any other non-HTTP-20x response.

>> RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://httpbin.org/redirect/1')
=> RestClient::Response 200 "{\n  "args":..."

>> RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://httpbin.org/redirect/1', max_redirects: 0)
RestClient::Found: 302 Found

To manually follow redirection, you can call Response#follow_redirection. Or you could of course inspect the result and choose custom behavior.

>> RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://httpbin.org/redirect/1', max_redirects: 0)
RestClient::Found: 302 Found
>> begin
       RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://httpbin.org/redirect/1', max_redirects: 0)
   rescue RestClient::ExceptionWithResponse => err
   end
>> err
=> #<RestClient::Found: 302 Found>
>> err.response
=> RestClient::Response 302 "<!DOCTYPE H..."
>> err.response.headers[:location]
=> "/get"
>> err.response.follow_redirection
=> RestClient::Response 200 "{\n  "args":..."

Result handling

The result of a RestClient::Request is a RestClient::Response object.

New in 2.0: RestClient::Response objects are now a subclass of String. Previously, they were a real String object with response functionality mixed in, which was very confusing to work with.

Response objects have several useful methods. (See the class rdoc for more details.)

Response#code: The HTTP response code
Response#body: The response body as a string. (AKA .to_s)
Response#headers: A hash of HTTP response headers
Response#raw_headers: A hash of HTTP response headers as unprocessed arrays
Response#cookies: A hash of HTTP cookies set by the server
Response#cookie_jar: New in 1.8 An HTTP::CookieJar of cookies
Response#request: The RestClient::Request object used to make the request
Response#history: New in 2.0 If redirection was followed, a list of prior Response objects

RestClient.get('http://example.com')
â <RestClient::Response 200 "<!doctype h...">

begin
 RestClient.get('http://example.com/notfound')
rescue RestClient::ExceptionWithResponse => err
  err.response
end
â <RestClient::Response 404 "<!doctype h...">

Response callbacks, error handling

A block can be passed to the RestClient method. This block will then be called with the Response. Response.return! can be called to invoke the default response's behavior.

# Don't raise exceptions but return the response
>> RestClient.get('http://example.com/nonexistent') {|response, request, result| response }
=> <RestClient::Response 404 "<!doctype h...">

# Manage a specific error code
RestClient.get('http://example.com/resource') { |response, request, result, &block|
  case response.code
  when 200
    p "It worked !"
    response
  when 423
    raise SomeCustomExceptionIfYouWant
  else
    response.return!(&block)
  end
}

But note that it may be more straightforward to use exceptions to handle different HTTP error response cases:

begin
  resp = RestClient.get('http://example.com/resource')
rescue RestClient::Unauthorized, RestClient::Forbidden => err
  puts 'Access denied'
  return err.response
rescue RestClient::ImATeapot => err
  puts 'The server is a teapot! # RFC 2324'
  return err.response
else
  puts 'It worked!'
  return resp
end

For GET and HEAD requests, rest-client automatically follows redirection. For other HTTP verbs, call .follow_redirection on the response object (works both in block form and in exception form).

# Follow redirections for all request types and not only for get and head
# RFC : "If the 301, 302 or 307 status code is received in response to a request other than GET or HEAD,
#        the user agent MUST NOT automatically redirect the request unless it can be confirmed by the user,
#        since this might change the conditions under which the request was issued."

# block style
RestClient.post('http://example.com/redirect', 'body') { |response, request, result|
  case response.code
  when 301, 302, 307
    response.follow_redirection
  else
    response.return!
  end
}

# exception style by explicit classes
begin
  RestClient.post('http://example.com/redirect', 'body')
rescue RestClient::MovedPermanently,
       RestClient::Found,
       RestClient::TemporaryRedirect => err
  err.response.follow_redirection
end

# exception style by response code
begin
  RestClient.post('http://example.com/redirect', 'body')
rescue RestClient::ExceptionWithResponse => err
  case err.http_code
  when 301, 302, 307
    err.response.follow_redirection
  else
    raise
  end
end

Non-normalized URIs

If you need to normalize URIs, e.g. to work with International Resource Identifiers (IRIs), use the Addressable gem (https://github.com/sporkmonger/addressable/) in your code:

  require 'addressable/uri'
  RestClient.get(Addressable::URI.parse("http://www.è©¹å§æ¯.com/").normalize.to_str)

Lower-level access

For cases not covered by the general API, you can use the RestClient::Request class, which provides a lower-level API.

You can:

specify ssl parameters
override cookies
manually handle the response (e.g. to operate on it as a stream rather than reading it all into memory)

See RestClient::Request's documentation for more information.

Streaming request payload

RestClient will try to stream any file-like payload rather than reading it into memory. This happens through RestClient::Payload::Streamed, which is automatically called internally by RestClient::Payload.generate on anything with a read method.

>> r = RestClient.put('http://httpbin.org/put', File.open('/tmp/foo.txt', 'r'),
                      content_type: 'text/plain')
=> <RestClient::Response 200 "{\n  \"args\":...">

In Multipart requests, RestClient will also stream file handles passed as Hash (or new in 2.1 ParamsArray).

>> r = RestClient.put('http://httpbin.org/put',
                      {file_a: File.open('a.txt', 'r'),
                       file_b: File.open('b.txt', 'r')})
=> <RestClient::Response 200 "{\n  \"args\":...">

# received by server as two file uploads with multipart/form-data
>> JSON.parse(r)['files'].keys
=> ['file_a', 'file_b']

Streaming responses

Normally, when you use RestClient.get or the lower level RestClient::Request.execute method: :get to retrieve data, the entire response is buffered in memory and returned as the response to the call.

However, if you are retrieving a large amount of data, for example a Docker image, an iso, or any other large file, you may want to stream the response directly to disk rather than loading it in memory. If you have a very large file, it may become impossible to load it into memory.

There are two main ways to do this:

`raw_response`, saves into Tempfile

If you pass raw_response: true to RestClient::Request.execute, it will save the response body to a temporary file (using Tempfile) and return a RestClient::RawResponse object rather than a RestClient::Response.

Note that the tempfile created by Tempfile.new will be in Dir.tmpdir (usually /tmp/), which you can override to store temporary files in a different location. This file will be unlinked when it is dereferenced.

If logging is enabled, this will also print download progress. New in 2.1: Customize the interval with :stream_log_percent (defaults to 10 for printing a message every 10% complete).

For example:

>> raw = RestClient::Request.execute(
           method: :get,
           url: 'http://releases.ubuntu.com/16.04.2/ubuntu-16.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso',
           raw_response: true)
=> <RestClient::RawResponse @code=200, @file=#<Tempfile:/tmp/rest-client.20170522-5346-1pptjm1>, @request=<RestClient::Request @method="get", @url="http://releases.ubuntu.com/16.04.2/ubuntu-16.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso">>
>> raw.file.size
=> 1554186240
>> raw.file.path
=> "/tmp/rest-client.20170522-5346-1pptjm1"
raw.file.path
=> "/tmp/rest-client.20170522-5346-1pptjm1"

>> require 'digest/sha1'
>> Digest::SHA1.file(raw.file.path).hexdigest
=> "4375b73e3a1aa305a36320ffd7484682922262b3"

`block_response`, receives raw Net::HTTPResponse

If you want to stream the data from the response to a file as it comes, rather than entirely in memory, you can also pass RestClient::Request.execute a parameter :block_response to which you pass a block/proc. This block receives the raw unmodified Net::HTTPResponse object from Net::HTTP, which you can use to stream directly to a file as each chunk is received.

Note that this bypasses all the usual HTTP status code handling, so you will want to do you own checking for HTTP 20x response codes, redirects, etc.

The following is an example:

File.open('/some/output/file', 'w') {|f|
  block = proc { |response|
    response.read_body do |chunk|
      f.write chunk
    end
  }
  RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get,
                              url: 'http://example.com/some/really/big/file.img',
                              block_response: block)
}

Shell

The restclient shell command gives an IRB session with RestClient already loaded:

$ restclient
>> RestClient.get 'http://example.com'

Specify a URL argument for get/post/put/delete on that resource:

$ restclient http://example.com
>> put '/resource', 'data'

Add a user and password for authenticated resources:

$ restclient https://example.com user pass
>> delete '/private/resource'

Create ~/.restclient for named sessions:

  sinatra:
    url: http://localhost:4567
  rack:
    url: http://localhost:9292
  private_site:
    url: http://example.com
    username: user
    password: pass

Then invoke:

$ restclient private_site

Use as a one-off, curl-style:

$ restclient get http://example.com/resource > output_body

$ restclient put http://example.com/resource < input_body

Logging

To enable logging globally you can:

set RestClient.log with a Ruby Logger

RestClient.log = STDOUT

or set an environment variable to avoid modifying the code (in this case you can use a file name, "stdout" or "stderr"):

$ RESTCLIENT_LOG=stdout path/to/my/program

You can also set individual loggers when instantiating a Resource or making an individual request:

resource = RestClient::Resource.new 'http://example.com/resource', log: Logger.new(STDOUT)

RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://example.com/foo', log: Logger.new(STDERR))

All options produce logs like this:

RestClient.get "http://some/resource"
# => 200 OK | text/html 250 bytes
RestClient.put "http://some/resource", "payload"
# => 401 Unauthorized | application/xml 340 bytes

Note that these logs are valid Ruby, so you can paste them into the restclient shell or a script to replay your sequence of rest calls.

Proxy

All calls to RestClient, including Resources, will use the proxy specified by RestClient.proxy:

RestClient.proxy = "http://proxy.example.com/"
RestClient.get "http://some/resource"
# => response from some/resource as proxied through proxy.example.com

Often the proxy URL is set in an environment variable, so you can do this to use whatever proxy the system is configured to use:

  RestClient.proxy = ENV['http_proxy']

New in 2.0: Specify a per-request proxy by passing the :proxy option to RestClient::Request. This will override any proxies set by environment variable or by the global RestClient.proxy value.

RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://example.com',
                            proxy: 'http://proxy.example.com')
# => single request proxied through the proxy

This can be used to disable the use of a proxy for a particular request.

RestClient.proxy = "http://proxy.example.com/"
RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://example.com', proxy: nil)
# => single request sent without a proxy

Query parameters

Rest-client can render a hash as HTTP query parameters for GET/HEAD/DELETE requests or as HTTP post data in x-www-form-urlencoded format for POST requests.

New in 2.0: Even though there is no standard specifying how this should work, rest-client follows a similar convention to the one used by Rack / Rails servers for handling arrays, nested hashes, and null values.

The implementation in ./lib/rest-client/utils.rb closely follows Rack::Utils.build_nested_query, but treats empty arrays and hashes as nil. (Rack drops them entirely, which is confusing behavior.)

If you don't like this behavior and want more control, just serialize params yourself (e.g. with URI.encode_www_form) and add the query string to the URL directly for GET parameters or pass the payload as a string for POST requests.

Basic GET params:

RestClient.get('https://httpbin.org/get', params: {foo: 'bar', baz: 'qux'})
# GET "https://httpbin.org/get?foo=bar&baz=qux"

Basic x-www-form-urlencoded POST params:

>> r = RestClient.post('https://httpbin.org/post', {foo: 'bar', baz: 'qux'})
# POST "https://httpbin.org/post", data: "foo=bar&baz=qux"
=> <RestClient::Response 200 "{\n  \"args\":...">
>> JSON.parse(r.body)
=> {"args"=>{},
    "data"=>"",
    "files"=>{},
    "form"=>{"baz"=>"qux", "foo"=>"bar"},
    "headers"=>
    {"Accept"=>"*/*",
        "Accept-Encoding"=>"gzip, deflate",
        "Content-Length"=>"15",
        "Content-Type"=>"application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
        "Host"=>"httpbin.org"},
    "json"=>nil,
    "url"=>"https://httpbin.org/post"}

JSON payload: rest-client does not speak JSON natively, so serialize your payload to a string before passing it to rest-client.

>> payload = {'name' => 'newrepo', 'description': 'A new repo'}
>> RestClient.post('https://api.github.com/user/repos', payload.to_json, content_type: :json)
=> <RestClient::Response 201 "{\"id\":75149...">

Advanced GET params (arrays):

>> r = RestClient.get('https://http-params.herokuapp.com/get', params: {foo: [1,2,3]})
# GET "https://http-params.herokuapp.com/get?foo[]=1&foo[]=2&foo[]=3"
=> <RestClient::Response 200 "Method: GET...">
>> puts r.body
query_string: "foo[]=1&foo[]=2&foo[]=3"
decoded:      "foo[]=1&foo[]=2&foo[]=3"

GET:
  {"foo"=>["1", "2", "3"]}

Advanced GET params (nested hashes):

>> r = RestClient.get('https://http-params.herokuapp.com/get', params: {outer: {foo: 123, bar: 456}})
# GET "https://http-params.herokuapp.com/get?outer[foo]=123&outer[bar]=456"
=> <RestClient::Response 200 "Method: GET...">
>> puts r.body
...
query_string: "outer[foo]=123&outer[bar]=456"
decoded:      "outer[foo]=123&outer[bar]=456"

GET:
  {"outer"=>{"foo"=>"123", "bar"=>"456"}}

New in 2.0: The new RestClient::ParamsArray class allows callers to provide ordering even to structured parameters. This is useful for unusual cases where the server treats the order of parameters as significant or you want to pass a particular key multiple times.

Multiple fields with the same name using ParamsArray:

>> RestClient.get('https://httpbin.org/get', params:
                  RestClient::ParamsArray.new([[:foo, 1], [:foo, 2]]))
# GET "https://httpbin.org/get?foo=1&foo=2"

Nested ParamsArray:

>> RestClient.get('https://httpbin.org/get', params:
                  {foo: RestClient::ParamsArray.new([[:a, 1], [:a, 2]])})
# GET "https://httpbin.org/get?foo[a]=1&foo[a]=2"

Headers

Request headers can be set by passing a ruby hash containing keys and values representing header names and values:

# GET request with modified headers
RestClient.get 'http://example.com/resource', {:Authorization => 'Bearer cT0febFoD5lxAlNAXHo6g'}

# POST request with modified headers
RestClient.post 'http://example.com/resource', {:foo => 'bar', :baz => 'qux'}, {:Authorization => 'Bearer cT0febFoD5lxAlNAXHo6g'}

# DELETE request with modified headers
RestClient.delete 'http://example.com/resource', {:Authorization => 'Bearer cT0febFoD5lxAlNAXHo6g'}

Timeouts

By default the timeout for a request is 60 seconds. Timeouts for your request can be adjusted by setting the timeout: to the number of seconds that you would like the request to wait. Setting timeout: will override both read_timeout: and open_timeout:.

RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://example.com/resource',
                            timeout: 120)

Additionally, you can set read_timeout: and open_timeout: separately.

RestClient::Request.execute(method: :get, url: 'http://example.com/resource',
                            read_timeout: 120, open_timeout: 240)

Cookies

Request and Response objects know about HTTP cookies, and will automatically extract and set headers for them as needed:

response = RestClient.get 'http://example.com/action_which_sets_session_id'
response.cookies
# => {"_applicatioN_session_id" => "1234"}

response2 = RestClient.post(
  'http://localhost:3000/',
  {:param1 => "foo"},
  {:cookies => {:session_id => "1234"}}
)
# ...response body

Full cookie jar support (new in 1.8)

The original cookie implementation was very naive and ignored most of the cookie RFC standards. New in 1.8: An HTTP::CookieJar of cookies

Response objects now carry a cookie_jar method that exposes an HTTP::CookieJar of cookies, which supports full standards compliant behavior.

SSL/TLS support

Various options are supported for configuring rest-client's TLS settings. By default, rest-client will verify certificates using the system's CA store on all platforms. (This is intended to be similar to how browsers behave.) You can specify an :ssl_ca_file, :ssl_ca_path, or :ssl_cert_store to customize the certificate authorities accepted.

SSL Client Certificates

RestClient::Resource.new(
  'https://example.com',
  :ssl_client_cert  =>  OpenSSL::X509::Certificate.new(File.read("cert.pem")),
  :ssl_client_key   =>  OpenSSL::PKey::RSA.new(File.read("key.pem"), "passphrase, if any"),
  :ssl_ca_file      =>  "ca_certificate.pem",
  :verify_ssl       =>  OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_PEER
).get

Self-signed certificates can be generated with the openssl command-line tool.

Hook

RestClient.add_before_execution_proc add a Proc to be called before each execution. It's handy if you need direct access to the HTTP request.

Example:

# Add oauth support using the oauth gem
require 'oauth'
access_token = ...

RestClient.add_before_execution_proc do |req, params|
  access_token.sign! req
end

RestClient.get 'http://example.com'

Need caching, more advanced logging or any ability provided by Rack middleware?

Have a look at rest-client-components: http://github.com/crohr/rest-client-components

Credits


REST Client Team	Andy Brody
Creator	Adam Wiggins
Maintainers Emeriti	Lawrence Leonard Gilbert, Matthew Manning, Julien Kirch
Major contributions	Blake Mizerany, Julien Kirch

A great many generous folks have contributed features and patches. See AUTHORS for the full list.

Legal

Released under the MIT License: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

Photo of the International Space Station was produced by NASA and is in the public domain.

Code for reading Windows root certificate store derived from work by Puppet; used under terms of the Apache License, Version 2.0.

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REST Client -- simple DSL for accessing HTTP and REST resources

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Requirements

Upgrading to rest-client 2.0 from 1.x

Usage: Raw URL

Passing advanced options

Multipart

Usage: ActiveResource-Style

Usage: Resource Nesting

Exceptions (see http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html)

Other exceptions

Redirection

Manually following redirection

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Streaming request payload

Streaming responses

raw_response, saves into Tempfile

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Hook

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`raw_response`, saves into Tempfile

`block_response`, receives raw Net::HTTPResponse