AlmaRestClient

This gem retrieves Alma data from the Alma API. It extends the HTTParty gem.

Minimal Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

source "https://rubygems.pkg.github.com/mlibrary" do
  gem "alma_rest_client", "~> 2.0"
end

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install alma_rest_client

Set the API key.

Set the following environment variables

ALMA_API_KEY

Or directly configure it:

AlmaRestClient.configure do |config|
  config.alma_api_key = ENV.fetch("ENV_VAR_WITH_API_KEY")
end

Usage

All of the following methods return a Faraday::Response object from Alma

#all are instance methods
client = AlmaRestClient.client

# Get method without options
response = client.get('/users/soandso')

# Get method with options
response = client.get('/users/soandso/loans', query: {"limit" => 100, "expand" => "renewable"}

#post method without options
response = client.post('/users/soandso/loans/123958915158')

#post method with options
response = client.post('/users/soandso/loans/123958915158', query: {"op" => "renew"}, body: 'ruby_hash_or_array or string its expecting to receive')

#put method
response = client.put('/users/soandso', body: 'ruby_hash_or_array or json_body_string_alma_is_expecting_to_receive')

get_all method tries twice to get full list of results from Alma. This returns an AlmaRestClient::Response object which has a code, message, and parsed_response. The full list is of the form of a normal AlmaRestClient#get method, if there was a limit "ALL" option. get_all method uses keyword arguments. :url and :record_key are required arguments.

#all are instance methods
client = AlmaRestClient.client

#get_all without options
response = client.get_all(url: '/users/soandso/loans', record_key: 'item_loan')

#get_all with options; this method overwrites 'limit' and 'offset'
response = client.get_all(url: '/users/soandso/loans', record_key: 'item_loan', query: {"expand" => "renewable"})

get_report method is used for working Alma Analytics reports. It takes the argument :path which is the path to the analytics report. It can take a block or no block.

When no block is given to get_report it returns an AlmaRestClient::Response object which has a code, messsage, and parsed_response. The parsed response is an array of report rows. Each row element is a hash where the keys are the column names of the report.

When a block is given, the block can work with a row of the report. Each row is a hash where the keys are the column names of the report. If it's successful it will return a successful AlmaRestClient::Response object.

#all are instance methods
client = AlmaRestClient.client

#get_report
response = client.get_report(path: '/shared/University of Michigan 01UMICH_INST/Reports/fake-data')

my_array = []
response = client.get_report(path: '/shared/University of Michigan 01UMICH_INST/Reports/fake-data') do |row|
  my_array.push(row)
end

#optional 'retries' parameter is for how many times to retry a page of the report. Default is 2.
response = client.get_report(path: '/shared/University of Michigan 01UMICH_INST/Reports/fake-data', retries: 5)

Configuration

Environment Variables

Configuration of the Alma API Key and the Alma host can be done with the following environment variables

ALMA_API_KEY
ALMA_API_HOST

Direct Configuration

The gem can be configured directly with this pattern:

AlmaRestClient.configure do |config|
  config.alma_api_key = ENV.fetch("ENV_VAR_WITH_API_KEY")
end

Configuring directly overrides the environment variables.

Configuration Options

Below are the configuration options and their defaults:

Name	Description	Default Value
alma_api_key	The Alma API Key that has the appropriate permissions	""
alma_api_host	The base exlibris url	https://api-na.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com
http_adapter	The http adapter for Faraday to use	:httpx
retry_options	A hash of options for the retry adapter for Faraday	{ max: 1, retry_statuses: [500] }

Using a custom Faraday connection object

The AlmaRestClient::Client object can be initialized with a Faraday::Connection object like so:

conn = Faraday.new do
# Whatever special setting you want
end
AlmaRestClient.new(conn)

The adapter will still be set to whatever is in http_adapter. The retry adapter must also be configured in the configuration options.

Rspec Test Helpers

This gem includes rspec test helpers. They require the Webmock library. To use them put the following in your spec_helper.rb

require "alma_rest_client"
require "webmock/rspec"
require "httpx/adapters/webmock"

Rspec.configure do |config|
  include AlmaRestClient::Test::Helpers
# ....
end

This will give you the following stubs:

stub_alma_get_request(url:, input:, output:, status:, query:, no_return)
stub_alma_post_request(url:, input:, output:, status:, query:, no_return)
stub_alma_put_request(url:, input:, output:, status:, query:, no_return)
stub_alma_delete_request(url:, input:, output:, status:, query:, no_return)

The parameters are described below.

parameter	description	default
url	The path to the api endpoint that you would use with the actual client	(required)
input	The body of the input given to the request	nil
output	The body the stubbed request should return	nil
status	The status the stubbed request should return	200
query	The query parameters that should be part of the stubbed request	nil
no_return	This is for when you want to add to the stub, like to_raise. If this is not nil, then output will be ignored.	nil

How to Contribute

Clone the repository and cd into it

$ git clone git@github.com:mlibrary/alma_rest_client.git
$ cd alma_rest_client

Copy .env-example to .env

$ cp .env-example .env

Edit .env Replace the value for ALMA_API_KEY with a real key with appropriate permissions

Build the image

$ docker-compose build

Install the gems

$ docker-compose run --rm web bundle install

Run the tests

$ docker-compose run --rm web bundle exec rspec

To run the gem in irb

$ docker-compose run --rm web bundle exec irb
irb> client = AlmaRestClient.client