From: Paolo Nusco Perrotta <paolo.nusco.perrotta@...>
Date: 2007-09-09T20:55:07+09:00
Subject: Re: Better way to do this? Currently using two method_missing calls...

On Aug 4, 1:49 am, Dan <dan.gottl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> For example, if my ruby class is named API, I want to be able to call
> API.images.find_by_name and have my class pass along "images" and
> "find_by_name" to the remove service.  I've got this working using two
> method_missing calls (one as a class method and one as an instance
> method), but it looks sloppy and I was wondering if there was a better
> way to do this. Any ideas?

The flickr library (available via RubyGems) walks around the problem
by turning a Flickr API call such as:

  flickr.tags.getListUser

into a Ruby call like:

  flickr.tags_getListUser

so that it can forward the method to Flickr through a single
method_missing.

It also provides a more granular object model around the call, so
there is still some duplication left:

class Flickr
  class User
    def tags
      # @client is a Flickr object
      @client.tags_getListUser('user_id'=>@id)['who']['tags']
['tag'].collect { |tag| tag }
    end
...

You might or might not like this, but it looks like a decent trade-off
to me. It's simple, and you can still make calls to the back-end that
are not directly supported by your Ruby code.

---
  Paolo Perrotta - Bologna, Italy
  Now writing: "Metaprogramming Ruby"