Meteor.http.call (call URL API) - json

so I'm trying to make a call to a bible verse API in my Meteor application. I made a template with name="display", with a simple {{checkitout}} in the template.
Then for the template, I tried to make the call in its corresponding helper. It looks like this (in coffeescript, but Javascript readers should understand as well):
#Template.display.helpers
checkitout:->
result = Meteor.http.call("GET","http://labs.bible.org/api/passage=john%203:2&type=json")
console.log(result)
The URL is a JSON of a bible verse, but the problem is, the Meteor.http.call requires a third argument, a "callback" (because this is in the client folder). I read some documentation + examples and have no idea what it means.
Also, if I call it like this, is result exactly the JSON file, or do I need to fit it within a new hash? And what does a callback mean? Can someone give me an example?

As helpers are synchronous and API calls are not, you need to store the call result in a reactive variable and return it from the helper:
verse = "Loading..."
verseLoaded = false
verseDep = new Deps.Dependency()
Template.Display.checkItOut = ->
verseDep.depend()
unless verseLoaded
verseLoaded = true
Meteor.http.get "...", (error, result) ->
verse = "..."
verseDep.changed()
verse

On the client, the callback is required as you said. So this is something you could do to query an API and display the JSON result:
Template.Display.helpers
checkItOut: ->
Meteor.http.get 'https://graph.facebook.com/facebook', (error, result) ->
if not error
console.log result # display the the open graph result
Note 1: To use these functions, you need to add the HTTP package to your project with $ meteor add http. You can find further information in the documentation.
Note 2: In your situation, you cannot make an API call client-side due to the Access-Control-Allow-Origin Policy. So, the solution would be to use a method and make the call server-side.
# Client-side
Template.Display.helpers
checkItOut: ->
Meteor.call 'getBibleText', (error, result) ->
if not error
console.log result
# Server-side (server directory)
Meteor.methods
'getBibleText': ->
result = HTTP.get 'http://labs.bible.org/api/?passage=john%203:2&type=xml'
return result

Related

Output my JSON data before I use Firebase $save or $add in console?

I've been trying to debug for hours a Firebase rule problem and was wondering if there is something easier available.
My problem is that I save my firebaseObject with $save (or create with $add) and get a permission denied because of my rules. However, both the rules and the object is pretty complex and there are dozens of rules which are involved. In my simulator, I think I got it all, but still get permission denied.
The problem is that I am not 100% sure how the JSON data actually looks which $save tries to send to Firebase. If I use the normal console.log(myObject), I get of course a list of all values and functions inside this object, but this isn't the same as the raw JSON I would expect (like { "name": "value" }).
Is there any way to display the actual plain JSON data $save sends to copy this into the rule simulator and debug? Or is there any other way to see which exact permission is denied?
Otherwise, I have to go one by one, switching my permissions off and on which would be a pretty long night for me. :(
If the value of the $firebaseObject is an object, the only difference (in addition to the prototype-wired methods) should be a number of $-prefixed properties (like $id and $resolved). So you should be able to see the actual JSON of what will be written to the database using something like this:
var written = {};
Object.keys(myObject).forEach(function (key) {
if (key.charAt(0) !== "$") { written[key] = myObject[key]; }
});
console.log(JSON.stringify(written));
The $$hashKey entries mentioned in your comment are added by AngularJS. A more general mechanism could be used to remove/ignore all $-prefixed keys throughout the object:
console.log(JSON.stringify(myObject, function (key, val) {
return key.charAt(0) === "$" ? undefined : val;
}));

handle a String[] via the PortletPreferences (Liferay6.2)

I have built a MVCPortlet that runs on Liferay 6.2.
It uses a PortletPReferences page that works fine to set/get String preferences parameters via the top right configuration menu.
Now I would need to store there a String[] instead of a regular String.
It seems to be possible as you can store and get some String[] via
portletPreferences.getValues("paramName", StringArrayData);
I want the data to be stored from a form multiline select.
I suppose that I need to call my derived controller (derived from DefaultConfigurationAction) and invoke there portletPreferences.setValues(String, String[]);
If so, in the middle, I will neeed the config jsp to pass the String[] array to the controller via a
request.setAttribute(String, String[]);
Do you think the app can work this way in theory?
If so, here are the problems I encountered when trying to make it work:
For any reason, in my config jsp,
request.setAttribute("paramName", myStringArray);
does not work ->
actionRequest.getAttribute("paramName")
retrieves null in my controller
This is quite a surprise as this usually works.
Maybe the config.jsp works a bit differently than standard jsps?
Then, how can I turn my multiline html select into a String[] attribute?
I had in mind to call a JS function when the form is submitted.
this JS function would generate the StringArray from the select ID (easy)
and then would call the actionURL (more complicated).
Is it possible?
thx in advance.
In your render phase (e.g. in config.jsp) you can't change the state of your portlet - e.g. I wouldn't expect any attributes to persist that are set there. They might survive to the end of the render phase, but not persist to the next action call. From a rendered UI to action they need to be part of a form, not request attributes.
You can store portletpreferences as String[], no problem, see the API for getting and setting them
I think maybe you can use an array in client side, and you can update the javascript array, when user is selecting new values.
So you have the javascript array, then when user click on the action, you can execute the action from javascript also, something like this:
Here "products" is the array with your products.
A.io.request(url, {type: 'POST',
data: {
key: products
},
on: {
success: function(event, id, obj) {
}
}
});
From Action methd you can try to get the parameter with:
ParamUtil.getParameterValues(request,"key");

Saving JSON data to DB in Zotonic

Im trying to write a small app that retrieves a JSON file (it contains a list of items, which all have some properties), saves its contents to the DB and then displays some of it later on. I have Zotonic up and running, and generating some HTML is no problem.
ATM i'm stuck trying to figure out how to define a custom resource and how to get the data from the JSON in the DB. When the data is there I should be fine, that part seems covered ok by the documentation.
I wrote some standalone erlang scripts that fetch the data and I noticed that Zotonic has a library for decoding JSON so that part should be fine. Any tips on where to put which code or where to look further?
The z_db module allows for creating custom tables by using:
z_db:create_table(Table, Cols, Context).
The Table variable is your table name which can be either an atom or a list containing a single atom.
The Cols is a list of column definitions, which are defined by records. Currently the record definition (you can find this in include/zotonic.hrl) is:
-record(column_def, {name, type, length, is_nullable=true, default, primary_key}).
See Erlang docs on records for more info on records
Example code which I put in users/sites/[sitename]/models/m_[sitename].erl:
init(Context) ->
case z_db:table_exists(?table,Context) of
false ->
z_db:create_table(tablename,
[
#column_def{name=id, type="serial"},
#column_def{name=gid, type="integer", is_nullable=false},
#column_def{name=magnitude, type="real"},
#column_def{name=depth, type="real"},
#column_def{name=location, type="character varying"},
#column_def{name=time, type="integer"},
#column_def{name=date, type="integer"}
], Context);
true -> ok
end,
ok.
Pay attention to what options of the record you specify. Most of the errors I got were e.g. from specifying a length on the integer fields.
The models/m_sitename:init/1 does not get called on site start. The sitename:init/1 does get called so I call the init function there to ensure the table exists. Example:
init(Context) ->
m_sitename:init(Context).
It is called by Zotonic with the Context variable of the site automatically. You can get this variable manually as well with z:c(sitename).. So if you call the m_sitename:init(Context). from somewhere else you would do:
m_sitename:init(z:c(sitename)).
Next, insertion in the DB can be done with:
z_db:insert(Table, PropList, Context).
Where Table is again an atom or a list containing a single atom representing the table name. Context is the same as above.
PropList is a property list which is a list containing tuples consisting of two elements where the first is an atom and the second is its associated value/property. Example:
PropList = [
{row, Value},
{anotherrow, AnotherValue}
].
Table = tablename.
Context = z:c(sitename).
z_db:insert(Table, PropList, Context).
See Erlang docs on Property Lists for more info on property lists.
=== The dependencies have been updated so if you build from source the step directly below is no longer needed ===
The JSON part is bit more tricky. Included with Zotonic are mochijson2 and as a secondary dependency also jiffy. The latest version of jiffy contains jiffy:decode/2 which allows you to specify maps as a return type. Much more readable than the standard {struct, {struct, <<"">>}} monster. To update to the latest version edit the line in deps/twerl/rebar.config that says
{jiffy, ".*", {git, "https://github.com/davisp/jiffy.git", {tag, "0.8.3"}}},
to
{jiffy, ".*", {git, "https://github.com/davisp/jiffy.git", {tag, "0.14.3"}}},
Now run z:m(). in the Zotonic shell. (you must do this after every change in your code).
Now check in the Zotonic shell if there is a jiffy:decode/2 available by typing jiffy: <tab>, it will show a list of available functions and their arity.
To retrieve a JSON file from the internet run:
{ok, {{_, 200, _}, _, Body}} = httpc:request(get, {"url-to-JSON-here", []}, [], [])
Which will yield the variable Body with the contents. See Erlang docs on http client for more info on this call.
Next convert the contents of Body to Erlang terms with:
JsonData = jiffy:decode(Body, [return_maps]).
What you have to do next depends a lot on the structure of your JSON resource. Keep in mind that everything is now in binary UTF-8 encoded strings! If you print JsonData to screen (just enter JsonData. in your Zotonic/Erlang shell) you will see a lot of #map{<<"key"", <<"Value">>} this.
My data was nested so I had to extract the needed data like this:
[{_,ItemList}|_] = ListData.
This gave me a list of maps, and in order to deal with them as individual items I used the following function:
get_maps([]) ->
done;
get_maps([First|Rest]) ->
Map = maps:get(<<"properties">>, First),
case is_map(Map) of
true ->
map_to_proplist(Map),
get_maps(Rest);
false -> done
end,
done;
get_maps(_) ->
done.
As you might remember, the z_db:insert/3 function needs a property list to populate rows, so that what the call to map_to_proplist/1 is for. How this function looks is completely dependent on how your data looks but as an example here is what worked for me:
map_to_proplist(Map) ->
case is_map(Map) of
true ->
{Value1,_} = string:to_integer(binary_to_list(maps:get(<<"key1">>, Map))),
{Value2,_} = string:to_float(binary_to_list(maps:get(<<"key2">>, Map))),
{Value3,_} = string:to_float(binary_to_list(maps:get(<<"key3">>, Map))),
Value4 = binary_to_list(maps:get(<<"key4">>, Map)),
{Value5,_} = string:to_integer(binary_to_list(maps:get(<<"key5">>, Map))),
{Value6,_} = string:to_integer(binary_to_list(maps:get(<<"key6">>, Map))),
PropList = [{rowname1, Value1}, {rowname2, Value2}, {rowname3, Value3}, {rowname4, Value4}, {rowname5, Value5}, {rowname6, Value6}],
m_sitename:insert_items(PropList,z:c(sitename)),
ok;
false ->
ok
end.
See the documentation on string:to_list/1 as to why the tuples are needed when casting. The call to m_sitename:insert_items(PropList,z:c(sitename)) calls the z_db:insert/3 in models/m_sitename.erl but wrapped in a catch:
insert_items(PropList,Context) ->
(catch z_db:insert(?table, PropList, Context)).
Ok, quite a long post but this should get you up and running if you were looking for this answer.
The above was done with Zotonic 0.13.2 on Erlang/OTP 18.
A repost (except the JSON part) of my post in the Zotonic Developers group.

Spring HATEOAS template link expansion

Using the HATEOAS links functionality which is great I am trying to output a templated url to highlight the filter params available to a user
Example controller method
#RequestMapping(value = "/persons", method = RequestMethod.GET, produces = "application/hal+json")
public PersonsResource getPersons (#RequestParam(required = false, value = "name") String name, #RequestParam(required = false, value = "age") Integer age) {
...
personsResource.add(ControllerLinkBuilder.linkTo(ControllerLinkBuilder.methodOn(PersonController.class).getPersons(name, age)).withSelfRel());
}
When this method is invoked with no parameters links appears
_links: {
self: {
href: "http://myserver:8080/persons"
}
}
But I'd like
href: "http://myserver:8080/persons?name={name}&age={age}
Even better if one param was supplied then
href: "http://myserver:8080/persons?name={name}&age=21
Icing on the cake would be query parameters of {...] to be ignored ?
Does anyone know if this is possible using the Spring HATEOAS api ? I have managed to code around this but it seems like a reasonable suggestion for the API ?
You could try AffordanceBuilder from spring-hateoas-ext as a drop-in replacement for ControllerLinkBuilder. It creates template variables for parameters you leave undefined in the linkTo-methodOn idiom.
It not only allows to create templates, but also gives you the full capabilities of a RFC 5988 Link and has knowledge about request bodies, so that one can render Hydra or Html or Siren Responses with form-style request descriptors from it.
Disclaimer: I'm the author of spring-hateoas-ext.
This has been addressed in the latest spring-hateoas version. You can check the following issue:
https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-hateoas/issues/169
You should be able to get the required templated URL using something like:
resource.add(linkTo(methodOn(Controller.class).method(null)).withSelfRel());
I guess, the framework is still pretty immature.
I have v.0.11.0.RELEASE and have the same issue.
When you don't supply parameter values you don't have template URL as a result of the ControllerLinkBuilder.linkTo(methodOn) invocation. It's just the way you said, base path from the method annotation.
But when you supply parameter values it's exactly like you say:
https://stackoverflow.com/some/service/path?name=SomeName&age=11
(in my case parameters are different, but the effect is the one you see here)
The 'conceptually correct' URL should be
https://stackoverflow.com/some/service/path{?name,age}
But Spring HATEOAS doesn't support this. Unless you want to append it yourself in the code. Which is really undesirable.
I checked the UriBuilder from JavaEE, it works the same way, no templating for query parameters supported.

Issue with passing JSON to a view in Web2py

Wrote a very simple function to pull data from the espn api and display in default/index. However default/index is a blank page.
At this point I'm not even trying to parse through the JSON - I just want to see something on my browser.
default.py:
import urllib2
import json
#espn_uri being pulled from models/db.py
def index():
r = urllib2.Request(espn_uri)
opener = urllib2.build_opener()
f = opener.open(r)
status = json.load(f)
return dict(status)
default/index.html:
{{status}}
Thank you!
Try: return dict(status=status)
return dict(status) works because status it itself a dict, and dict(status) just copies it. But it's probably got no key named status, or at least nothing interesting.
And yes, you need =.
As JLundell advises, first return paired data via the dictionary:
return dict(my_status=status)
Second, as you've worked out, use the following to access the returned, rather than the local variable in index.html. Make sure you use the equals sign here or nothing will display
{{=my_status}}
When it comes to JSON, you can return the data using
return my_status.json()
Several other options are available to return data as a list, or to return HTML.
Finally, I recommend that you make use of jQuery and AJAX ($.ajax), so that the AJAX return value can be easily assigned to a JS object. This will also allow you to handle success or errors in the form of JS functions.