Where do I put an extension to open_uri

Question

I'm trying to fetch an image from Twitter:

open("http://api.twitter.com/1/users/profile_image/barackobama.png?size=bigger")

But I get:

RuntimeError: redirection forbidden: http://... -> https://...

There is an open issue and it seems that I can use an extension to open_uri but I don't know how it works. For example, if I place it in lib/ or if I paste the module in the console, it still doesn't work. Any idea?

Answer 1

I think the proper place to put such a patch is in a file inside config/initializers, i.e. config/initializers/open_uri_allow_unsafe_redirects_patch.rb. You have to require 'open-uri' before reopening the OpenURI module:

require 'open-uri'    
module OpenURI
  # the rest of the file here...
end

Then you have to call open passing the option allow_unsafe_redirects set to true:

open('http://api.twitter.com/1/users/profile_image/barackobama.png?size=bigger',
     allow_unsafe_redirects: true)

You can find more informations about initializer files on the Ruby on Rails guide