How should i check if gravatar exist?

Question

using this gem https://github.com/sinisterchipmunk/gravatar how do i check if gravatar for specified email exist or not? I think i am missing some force default option? Because this

url = Gravatar.new("generic@example.com").image_url

always return a picture

Answer 1

Looking at that gem's documentation, it sounds like you need an API key before you can run the exists method:

Fine, but how about the rest of the API as advertised at en.gravatar.com/site/implement/xmlrpc? Well, for that you need either the user’s Gravatar password, or their API key:

api = Gravatar.new("generic@example.com", :api_key => "AbCdEfG1234")

api.exists?("another@example.com") #=> true or false, depending on whether the specified email exists.

If the user doesn't have a gravatar, an image will be generated for them based on the email (at least that has been my experience). I've used the gem gravatar_image_tag - http://rubygems.org/gems/gravatar_image_tag which lets you change the default gravatar image.

Answer 2

In case people would like to know how to do it without any gems :

The trick is to get gravatar image with a false default image and then check header response. It's achieved with the Net::HTTP ruby library.

require 'net/http'

def gravatar?(user)
    gravatar_check = "http://gravatar.com/avatar/#{Digest::MD5.hexdigest(user.gravatar_email.downcase)}.png?d=404"
    uri = URI.parse(gravatar_check)
    http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
    request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)
    response = http.request(request)
    response.code.to_i != 404 # from d=404 parameter
end

Answer 3

if (response.code.to_i == 404)
  return false
else
  return true
end

Instead of whole block, use only this(as a last line):

response.code.to_i != 404