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ruby-on-railsrubybase64encodeactivesupport

How to encode media in base64 given URL in Ruby

I'm trying to upload an image to PingFM. Their documentation says:

media – base64 encoded media data.

I can access this image via the URL. I tried (practically guessed) this:

ActiveSupport::Base64.encode64(open("http://image.com/img.jpg"))

But I get this error:

TypeError: can't convert Tempfile into String
    from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/base64.rb:97:in `pack'
    from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/base64.rb:97:in `encode64'
    from (irb):19
    from :0
Solution

  • The open method:

    open("http://image.com/img.jpg")

    is returning a Tempfile object, while encode64 expects a String.

    Calling read on the tempfile should do the trick:

    ActiveSupport::Base64.encode64(open("http://image.com/img.jpg") { |io| io.read })