How to use Koala Facebook Graph API? - ruby

Question

I am a Rails newbie. I want to use Koala's Graph API.
In my controller
#graph = Koala::Facebook::API.new('myFacebookAccessToken')
#hello = #graph.get_object("my.Name")
When I do this, I get something like this
{
"id"=>"123456",
"name"=>"First Middle Last",
"first_name"=>"First",
"middle_name"=>"Middle",
"last_name"=>"Last",
"link"=>"http://www.facebook.com/MyName",
"username"=>"my.name",
"birthday"=>"12/12/1212",
"hometown"=>{"id"=>"115200305133358163", "name"=>"City, State"}, "location"=>{"id"=>"1054648928202133335", "name"=>"City, State"},
"bio"=>"This is my awesome Bio.",
"quotes"=>"I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul. - William Ernest Henley\r\n\r\n"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.\" - Mark Twain",
"work"=>[{"employer"=>{"id"=>"100751133333", "name"=>"Company1"}, "position"=>{"id"=>"105763693332790962", "name"=>"Position1"}, "start_date"=>"2010-08", "end_date"=>"2011-07"}],
"sports"=>[{"id"=>"104019549633137", "name"=>"Sport1"}, {"id"=>"103992339636529", "name"=>"Sport2"}],
"favorite_teams"=>[{"id"=>"105467226133353743", "name"=>"Fav1"}, {"id"=>"19031343444432369133", "name"=>"Fav2"}, {"id"=>"98027790139333", "name"=>"Fav3"}, {"id"=>"104055132963393331", "name"=>"Fav4"}, {"id"=>"191744431437533310", "name"=>"Fav5"}],
"favorite_athletes"=>[{"id"=>"10836600585799922", "name"=>"Fava1"}, {"id"=>"18995689436787722", "name"=>"Fava2"}, {"id"=>"11156342219404022", "name"=>"Fava4"}, {"id"=>"11169998212279347", "name"=>"Fava5"}, {"id"=>"122326564475039", "name"=>"Fava6"}],
"inspirational_people"=>[{"id"=>"16383141733798", "name"=>"Fava7"}, {"id"=>"113529011990793335", "name"=>"fava8"}, {"id"=>"112032333138809855566", "name"=>"Fava9"}, {"id"=>"10810367588423324", "name"=>"Fava10"}],
"education"=>[{"school"=>{"id"=>"13478880321332322233663", "name"=>"School1"}, "type"=>"High School", "with"=>[{"id"=>"1401052755", "name"=>"Friend1"}]}, {"school"=>{"id"=>"11482777188037224", "name"=>"School2"}, "year"=>{"id"=>"138383069535219", "name"=>"2005"}, "type"=>"High School"}, {"school"=>{"id"=>"10604484633093514", "name"=>"School3"}, "year"=>{"id"=>"142963519060927", "name"=>"2010"}, "concentration"=>[{"id"=>"10407695629335773", "name"=>"c1"}], "type"=>"College"}, {"school"=>{"id"=>"22030497466330708", "name"=>"School4"}, "degree"=>{"id"=>"19233130157477979", "name"=>"c3"}, "year"=>{"id"=>"201638419856163", "name"=>"2011"}, "type"=>"Graduate School"}],
"gender"=>"male",
"interested_in"=>["female"],
"relationship_status"=>"Single",
"religion"=>"Religion1",
"political"=>"Political1",
"email"=>"somename#somecompany.com",
"timezone"=>-8,
"locale"=>"en_US",
"languages"=>[{"id"=>"10605952233759137", "name"=>"English"}, {"id"=>"10337617475934611", "name"=>"L2"}, {"id"=>"11296944428713061", "name"=>"L3"}],
"verified"=>true,
"updated_time"=>"2012-02-24T04:18:05+0000"
}
How do I show this entire hash in the view in a good format?
This is what I did from what ever I learnt..
In my view
<% #hello.each do |key, value| %>
<li><%=h "#{key.to_s} : #{value.to_s}" %></li>
<% end %>
This will get the entire thing converted to a list... It works awesome if its just one key.. but how to work with multiple keys and show only the information... something like
when it outputs hometown : City, State rather than something like
hometown : {"id"=>"115200305133358163", "name"=>"City, State"}
Also for education if I just say education[school][name] to display list of schools attended?
The error i get is can't convert String into Integer
I also tried to do this in my controller, but I get the same error..
#fav_teams = #hello["favorite_teams"]["name"]
Also, how can I save all these to the database.. something like just the list of all schools.. not their id no's?
Update:
The way I plan to save to my database is.. lets say for a user model, i want to save to database as :facebook_id, :facebook_name, :facebook_firstname, ...., :facebook_hometown .. here I only want to save name... when it comes to education.. I want to save.. school, concentration and type.. I have no idea on how to achieve this..
Looking forward for help! thanks!

Answer 1

To show the hash in a pretty-printed way, use the gem 'awesome_print'.
Add this to your Gemfile:
gem 'awesome_print'
And then run:
bundle install
And then, in your view, you can add:
<%= ap #hello %>
The question of how to store in the database requires a little more information on what you plan to do with it, but at minimum you could create a model, add a 'facebook_data' (type would be 'text') on that model, and then serialize it (add this line near the top of your model file: serialize :facebook_data). Then you could assign the hash (#hello in this case) to the model's 'facebook_data' property, and then save the model. But you won't be able to query your database for individual attributes of this facebook data very easily this way.

Answer 2

you can just do #hello["name"] then it will give you the value of the name

Answer 3

Your #hello object should be of the class Koala::Facebook::API::GraphCollection or something similar. You should be able to loop through this object, like your question demonstrates. As for what code to put inside your loop that will help you save records to the database, assuming your rails user model class name is User, try something like this:
#hello.each do |h|
u = User.where(:facebook_id => h["id"]).first_or_initialize
u.update_attributes(
:name => h["name"],
:first_name => h["first_name"],
:hometown_city => h["hometown"]["name"].split(",").first,
:hometown_state => h["hometown"]["name"].split(",").last.strip
# ETC, ETC
)
end
In the case of the hometown and education fields, you're just going to have to traverse the ruby hash the proper way. See the docs for more info.