Saving photos from instagram api calls to Postgresql?

Question

So I wanted to create an app that makes a get request to the instagram api and grabs a users picture feed WHILE saving the url's of the photos to my postgresql database automatically. I'm assuming it's possible but am having a hard time figuring out how to go about it. I've got the picture feed coming out ok but saving to my DB is where I fail. Here is my instagram controller:

class InstagramController < ApplicationController 

before_action :set_ig_acc_code, only: [:feed, :search]

def instagram
    # Find the access token
    res = HTTParty.post("https://instagram.com/oauth/access_token/",
     {body:{client_id: ENV["IG_CLIENT_ID"],
      client_secret: ENV["IG_CLIENT_SECRET"],
      grant_type:'authorization_code',
      redirect_uri:'http://localhost:3000/instagram',
      code: params[:code]}})
    redirect_to feed_path(acc_token: res.parsed_response["access_token"])
end

def feed
    # Show a feed of pictures
    if params[:user_id] # For a given user
        @feed = HTTParty.get("https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/" + URI::escape(params[:user_id]) + "/media/recent?access_token=" +
        @acc_token)
    else    # This user's folks they follow
        @feed = HTTParty.get("https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/self/feed?access_token=" +
        @acc_token)
    end
end

def search
    # Search users
    @url = "https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/search?q=" + URI::escape(params[
        :search][:query]) + "&access_token=" +
     params[:acc_token]
    @results = HTTParty.get(@url)
end

private
    def set_ig_acc_code
        @acc_token = params[:acc_token]
    end

end

Maybe I should make a photo model with a URL field and save them as they load through my feed somehow??? I'm banging my head against the wall on this one. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

if i remember correctly, the instagram api has a call to return all sorts of data about an object. try searching the instagram developer site for media url or such. hope this helps.

Answer 2

Not sure why this question was down voted as I thought it was legit but here's a solution I found that might help someone else with the same problem. I added this at the end of my Feed method inside the InstagramController:

        @feed["data"].each do |pic|
            url = pic["images"]["thumbnail"]["url"]
            Photo.find_or_create_by(url:url)
        end

Pending a migration, this saved the URL just fine. Still working on saving the "Tag" data but it should be something similar.