Rails - Feb 2006 - HTTP POST of XML

I am new to Rails so hopefully not asking stupid questions, but I would
appreciate any help on the following:
 
What is the easiest (least hassle) way for my Rails application to
accept XML input? I know that I can use WSDL, but is there any default
or easily modified way to simply do an HTTP POST of the parameters I
want to pass in?
 
Also, I have tried coding a client to do an HTTP POST of what appeared
to be the parameters to some simple RAILS applications (like recipe from
InstantRails) and it appears that Rails expects a *nested* name-value
pair - something my client software can''t currently do. Can someone
explain why Rails does this and if there are any work-arounds?
 
-Mark
 
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Mark Wales wrote:
> Also, I have tried coding a client to do an HTTP POST of what appeared 
> to be the parameters to some simple RAILS applications (like recipe from 
> InstantRails) and it appears that Rails expects a **nested** name-value 
> pair ? something my client software can?t currently do. Can someone 
> explain why Rails does this and if there are any work-arounds?
Rails actually does some magic query-key parsing to make that work.  As 
long as you can submit key-value pairs with arbitrary keys, you should 
be able to get the nested values to work.  Something like:

   http://rails.app/my/query?val[a]=foo&val[b]=bar

should give you a params array like:

   params = {:val =>{:a=>''foo'',
:b=>''bar''}}

I don''t know if that''s enough to get your client to work,
though...

-- 
Alex

I just wanted to clarify what you are suggesting. If I want to attain
this:

	Parameters: {"commit"=>"Create",
"category"=>{"name"=>"Test"},...

I should insert the following pairs of Strings:

	"commit", "Create"
	"category[name]", "Test"

Is this what you had in mind?

-Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org
[mailto:rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org] On Behalf Of Alex Young
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 8:38 AM
To: rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
Subject: Re: [Rails] HTTP POST of XML

Mark Wales wrote:
> Also, I have tried coding a client to do an HTTP POST of what appeared
> to be the parameters to some simple RAILS applications (like recipe
from 
> InstantRails) and it appears that Rails expects a **nested**
name-value 
> pair - something my client software can''t currently do. Can
someone
> explain why Rails does this and if there are any work-arounds?
Rails actually does some magic query-key parsing to make that work.  As 
long as you can submit key-value pairs with arbitrary keys, you should 
be able to get the nested values to work.  Something like:

   http://rails.app/my/query?val[a]=foo&val[b]=bar

should give you a params array like:

   params = {:val =>{:a=>''foo'',
:b=>''bar''}}

I don''t know if that''s enough to get your client to work,
though...

-- 
Alex
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Mark Wales wrote:
> I just wanted to clarify what you are suggesting. If I want to attain
> this:
> 
> 	Parameters: {"commit"=>"Create",
> "category"=>{"name"=>"Test"},...
> 
> I should insert the following pairs of Strings:
> 
> 	"commit", "Create"
> 	"category[name]", "Test"
> 
> Is this what you had in mind?
Without being precisely sure what you''re inserting to, that looks about
right, yes.

-- 
Alex