Get HTTP response body as string (BubbleWrap for RubyMotion) - http

Question

Using RubyMotion (for the first time!), I want to use Twitter's search API to retrieve some recent tweets for some users so have put together the class below.
The value of tweets is always an empty array. I suspect that BW::HTTP.get(url) spawns its own thread which is causing the issue.
Really, I just want twitter_search_results to return response.body.to_str but I am not sure how to do this.
How do I use RubyMotion (or BubbleWrap) to put an array of Tweet objects into my UIViewController?
class TweetsController
def initialize
#twitter_accounts = %w(dhh google)
#tweets = []
end
def tweets
twitter_search_results
puts #tweets.count
#tweets
end
def create_tweets(response)
BW::JSON.parse(response)["results"].each do |result|
#tweets << Tweet.new(result)
end
end
def twitter_search_results
query = #twitter_accounts.map{ |account| "from:#{account}" }.join(" OR ")
url = "http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=#{query}"
BW::HTTP.get(url) do |response|
create_tweets(response.body.to_str)
end
end
end
class TwitterViewController < UIViewController
def viewDidLoad
super
self.view.backgroundColor = UIColor.blueColor
#table = UITableView.alloc.initWithFrame(self.view.bounds)
self.view.addSubview #table
#table.dataSource = self
#tweets_controller = TweetsController.new
end
def initWithNibName(name, bundle: bundle)
super
self.tabBarItem = UITabBarItem.alloc.initWithTitle(
"Twitter",
image: UIImage.imageNamed('twitter.png'),
tag: 1)
self
end
def tableView(tableView, numberOfRowsInSection: section)
#tweets_controller.tweets.length
end
def tableView(tableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath: indexPath)
#reuse_id = "Tweet"
cell = UITableViewCell.alloc.initWithStyle(UITableViewCellStyleDefault, reuseIdentifier:#reuse_id)
cell.textLabel.text = #tweets_controller.tweets[indexPath.row].text
return cell
end
end
class Tweet
attr_reader :created_at, :from_user, :text
def initialize(tweet_result)
#created_at = tweet_result["created_at"]
#from_user = tweet_result["from_user"]
#text = tweet_result["text"]
end
end

Answer 1

Full controller code below. I've also put the project on GitHub
class TweetsController
def initialize
#twitter_accounts = %w(dhh google)
#tweets = []
create_tweets
end
def tweets
#tweets
end
def create_tweets
json_data = twitter_search_results.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)
e = Pointer.new(:object)
dict = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(json_data, options:0, error: e)
dict["results"].each do |result|
p result.class
p result
#tweets << Tweet.new(result)
end
end
def twitter_search_results
query = #twitter_accounts.map{ |account| "from:#{account}" }.join(" OR ")
url_string = "http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=#{query}"
url_string_escaped = url_string.stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)
url = NSURL.URLWithString(url_string_escaped)
request = NSURLRequest.requestWithURL(url)
response = nil
error = nil
data = NSURLConnection.sendSynchronousRequest(request, returningResponse: response, error: error)
raise "BOOM!" unless (data.length > 0 && error.nil?)
json = NSString.alloc.initWithData(data, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)
end
end

Answer 2

the issue here is asynchronicity. you're almost there, I think, but the create_tweets method is not called before puts #tweets. In this case, I would recommend using a notification, because I think they are good ;-)
TweetsReady = 'TweetsReady' # constants are nice
NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter.postNotificationName(TweetsReady, object:#tweets)
In your controller, register for this notification in `viewWillAppear` and unregister in `viewWillDisappear`
NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter.addObserver(self, selector: 'tweets_ready:', name: TweetsReady, object:nil) # object:nil means 'register for all events, not just ones associated with 'object'
# ...
NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter.removeObserver(self, name:TweetsReady, object:nil)
and you tweets_ready method should implement your UI changes.
def tweets_ready(notification)
#table.reloadData
end