Rails Doesn't Recognize Parameters POSTed from Ruby Script

Question

I have a Rails controller with a create method, and I want to POST to it from a Ruby script. When I hit this method from a browser-based POST, the params hash is set appropriately, but when I hit it from my script, the hash is empty. I've already disabled protect_from_forgery, and the method does get called; it just has an empty params. Here is the controller method:

def create
  logger.info "GOT: #{request.body.read}"
  logger.info "PARAMS: #{params.inspect}"
  az = AreaZip.new(params[:area_zip])
  if az.save
    respond_to { |format|
      format.js { render :json => {:id => az.id} }
    }
  else
    logger.warn "FAILED creating AreaZip: #{az.errors.inspect}"
    respond_to { |format|
      format.js { render :json => {:errors => az.errors} }
    }
  end
end

Here is the code that does the posting:

def self.post(url, path, params={})
  url = "#{url}#{path}"
  uri = URI.parse(url)
  headers = {
    'Content-Type' => 'text/plain; charset=utf-8',
    'Authorization' => "Basic #{Base64.encode64('censored:censored').strip}",
  }

  http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
  post_data = params.map {|k,v| "#{CGI::escape(k.to_s)}=#{CGI::escape(v.to_s)}" }.join("&")
  resp, data = http.post(uri.path, post_data, headers)
  return JSON.parse(data)
end

Here is what I see if I post to nc -l -p 12345:

POST /admin/area_zips HTTP/1.1
Accept: */*
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Authorization: Basic sdfnjjsadf[censored]jklsdfsjdfkj
Content-Length: 54
Host: localhost:12345

area_zip%5Bzip%5D=15068-4838&area_zip%5Barea_id%5D=334

If I post to my Rails app, my log shows this:

Started POST "/admin/area_zips" for 127.0.0.1 at Fri Jul 29 09:45:05 -0400 2011
  Processing by Admin::AreaZipsController#create as */*
Asking for HTTP basic authentication to reach admin page
GOT: area_zip%5Bzip%5D=15068-6851&area_zip%5Barea_id%5D=334
PARAMS: {"action"=>"create", "controller"=>"admin/area_zips"}
  SQL (0.2ms)  BEGIN
  SQL (0.2ms)  ROLLBACK
FAILED creating AreaZip: #<OrderedHash {:area=>["can't be blank"], :zip=>["can't be blank"]}>
Completed 200 OK in 70ms (Views: 41.4ms | ActiveRecord: 1.2ms)

So as you can see, Rails gets the POSTed data, but it's not using it to set up params. Any idea why?

Have you tried not escaping your params? I'm not so sure you need escaping other than in plain URLs, not in post data. Also check out the Net::HTTP docs for recommended ways to do POST: ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/net/http/rdoc/classes/Net/HTTP.html — Casper
– Casper, Commented Jul 29, 2011 at 15:50
Params actually are supposed to be escaped in a POST, and I can see that my browser is escaping them when it sends the data. I tried unescaping anyway, though, and it didn't fix things. — Paul A Jungwirth
– Paul A Jungwirth, Commented Jul 29, 2011 at 17:38
Thanks for the reference to the docs. I never noticed that basic_auth method before. That means I don't have to send my own headers, and that means I can use the set_form_data method instead of my other approach. — Paul A Jungwirth
– Paul A Jungwirth, Commented Jul 29, 2011 at 17:40

Paul A Jungwirth · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-29 17:42:32Z

5

Okay, I solved this. Turns out the problem was the Content-Type header. I need to set it to application/x-www-form-urlencoded. Actually I thought I was doing this, but apparently not. That old Content-Type value was a copy-paste error, leftover from the code in my get method.

answered Jul 29, 2011 at 17:42

Paul A Jungwirth

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