From: Rob Biedenharn <Rob@...>
Date: 2009-02-19T01:59:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Hash acting weird with scRUBYt


On Feb 18, 2009, at 8:21 AM, Rick DeNatale wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 7:58 PM, Patrick L. <leahy16@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Rob,
>> So I tried what you suggested.
>>
>> Here's the new code: http://pastie.org/392399
>> And here's the new error: http://pastie.org/392397
>>
>
> Some comments.
>
> First the line
>    url_hash = {}
> is useless.  I get the impression that you are coming from some  
> statically
> typed language and think of this as a declaration of the type of the
> variable url_hash. Ruby doesn't have typed variables, and neither  
> has a
> mechanism for or a need for declaring types.
>
> Ok, that said,if you inspect what the next line is actually returning:
>
> url_hash = istock_data.to_hash
> p url_hash
>
> You should see something like:
>
> [{:url=>"/file_closeup/nature/nature-backgrounds/8546665-foggy-lane- 
> with-trees.php?id=8546665"},
....
> {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}, {}]
>
> Which is an array of hashes.  The fetch call is looking for a string
> containing the url to be fetched.
>
> So, instead you need to take another approach, and
> 1) extract the url from each hash,
> 2) Scrape each individual url, and collect the results.
>
> Something like:
>
> http://pastie.org/392796
>
> This doesn't work because the urls are relative, and I don't have  
> the time
> or motivation to figure that out for you, but this should get you  
> another
> step along the way.
>
> -- 
> Rick DeNatale
>
> Blog: http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale


(Note that I've not looked at your new pastie since Rick has.)

Some hints:
URI.join with a full URI and a path (absolute or relative) will give a  
URI back.

irb> require 'uri'
=> true
irb> URI.join("http://example.com/",
?>                "/file_closeup/nature/nature-backgrounds/8546665- 
foggy-lane-with-trees.php?id=8546665")
=> #<URI::HTTP:0x1c8e82 URL:http://example.com/file_closeup/nature/nature-backgrounds/8546665-foggy-lane-with-trees.php?id=8546665 
 >
irb> puts _
http://example.com/file_closeup/nature/nature-backgrounds/8546665-foggy-lane-with-trees.php?id=8546665
=> nil

And Rick's step 1 gets the hint:
array_of_url_values_as_strings = \
     array_of_hashes_with_url_keys.map {|h| h[:url]}


-Rob

P.S. Because you've shown your attempted code, you are getting more  
help than someone who just posts a plea for help. Thanks for that.  
(and I hope others learn this lesson, too)

Rob Biedenharn		http://agileconsultingllc.com
Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com