OpenUri causing 401 Unauthorized error with HTTPS URL - ruby

Question

I am adding functionality that scrapes an XML page from a source that requires the use of an HTTPS connection with authentication. I am trying to use Ryan Bates' Railscast #190 solution but I'm running into a 401 Authentication error.
Here is my test Ruby script:
require 'rubygems'
require 'nokogiri'
require 'open-uri'
url = "https://biblesearch.americanbible.org/passages.xml?q[]=john+3:1-5&version=KJV"
doc = Nokogiri::XML(open(url, :http_basic_authentication => ['username' ,'password']))
puts doc.xpath("//text_preview")
Here is the output of the console after I run my script:
/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:799:in `connect': SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed (OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError)
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:799:in `block in connect'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/timeout.rb:54:in `timeout'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/timeout.rb:99:in `timeout'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:799:in `connect'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:755:in `do_start'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:744:in `start'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/open-uri.rb:306:in `open_http'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/open-uri.rb:775:in `buffer_open'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/open-uri.rb:203:in `block in open_loop'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/open-uri.rb:201:in `catch'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/open-uri.rb:201:in `open_loop'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/open-uri.rb:146:in `open_uri'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/open-uri.rb:677:in `open'
from /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/open-uri.rb:33:in `open'
from scrape.rb:6:in `<main>'
In my research, I saw one post in which it was suggested that in 1.9.3 the following option could be used:
doc = Nokogiri::XML(open(url, :http_basic_authentication => ['username' ,'password'], :ssl_verify_mode => OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE))
However, this did not work either. I would appreciate some insight into addressing this challenge.

Answer 1

The given URL will be redirected to /v1/KJV/passages.xml?q[]=john+3%3A1-5 with HTTP status code 302 Found. OpenURI understands the redirection, but automatically deletes authentication header (maybe) for security reason. (*)
If you access "http://biblesearch.americanbible.org/v1/KJV/passages.xml?q[]=john+3%3A1-5" directly, you will get the expected result. :-)
(*) You can find in open-uri.rb:
if redirect
### snip ###
if options.include? :http_basic_authentication
# send authentication only for the URI directly specified.
options = options.dup
options.delete :http_basic_authentication
end

Answer 2

You can do this and it should work too:
open(url, :http_basic_authentication => [user, pass] )
doc = Nokogiri::HTML(open(url, :http_basic_authentication => [user, pass] ))
You can then parse the doc anyway you want.
By passing the http_basic_authentication in the header again in the second request, you will make up for the deleted header in the first request.
hope this works for you.
http://http-basic-authentication-nokogiri.blogspot.com/2014/08/http-basic-authentication-using-nokogiri.html

Answer 3

You say you need to use HTTPS, but you're using the HTTP protocol:
url = "http://biblesearch...."
OpenURI understands both HTTP and HTTPS. If you want to connect using HTTPS, change the protocol in the URL to HTTPS, then make the connection:
url = "https://biblesearch...."