CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-rails
Satchel
Satchel

Reputation: 16724

How do I add gravatar/identicons into Ruby on Rails?

I have looked at the following, but they aren't clear, particularly the reference to DataMapper and gem dependencies.

All I want as an outcome is to be able to take my @user.email value that is in a |do| loop and display a gravatar where the identicon is set to "y" -- in other words, those cute seemingly random drawings!

But when I look at what is available, it isn't clear what to do -- particularly the references to DataMapper and gem dependencies.

http://github.com/chrislloyd/gravtastic/tree/master

I am playing around with this, but I wanted to get feedback from others before diving too deep!

http://www.thechrisoshow.com/2008/10/27/adding-gravatars-to-your-rails-apps

I installed woods gravatar plugin:

http://github.com/woods/gravatar-plugin/tree/master which is the same as the one referred below...however, I get an error when I type in:

<%= gravatar_for @user %>

The error is:

undefined method `gravatar_for' for #<ActionView::Base:0x474ddf4>

Upvotes: 6

Views: 5296

Answers (5)

Sam Becker
Sam Becker

Reputation: 19636

You need to MD5 hash the email address and then put it into a gravatar URL. That will give you the image URL. Below is an example of how to do it.

http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/  md5(email)  ?s=128&d=identicon&r=PG

If you want those random drawings that appear, you can use an MD5 hash to get them. You could hash the key value in a loop and obtain a list that way.

Upvotes: 1

Emanuel
Emanuel

Reputation: 582

I use https://github.com/sinisterchipmunk/gravatar it works well, I am only using the basics but it can do cashing and advanced options.

It is also simple to use: 

Gravatar.new(email).image_url

for the identicons you could add wavatar as follows

Gravatar.new(email).image_url + '?d=wavatar'

Upvotes: 1

Nowaker
Nowaker

Reputation: 12402

Put this code in your ApplicationHelper so that gravatar_for is available in all views.

def gravatar_for email, options = {}
    options = {:alt => 'avatar', :class => 'avatar', :size => 80}.merge! options
    id = Digest::MD5::hexdigest email.strip.downcase
    url = 'http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/' + id + '.jpg?s=' + options[:size].to_s
    options.delete :size
    image_tag url, options
end

In views:

<%= gravatar_for 'my@mail' %>
<%= gravatar_for 'my@mail', :size => 48 %>
<%= gravatar_for 'my@mail', :size => 32, :class => 'img-class', :alt => 'me' %>

I refined slant's solution. Following Gravatar guidelines, e-mails should be trimmed and lowercased before hashing. Also, it seems require 'digest' isn't needed (tested on Rails 3).

Upvotes: 13

slant
slant

Reputation: 935

Not to repeat too much, but instead to give a more detailed answer:

As Sam152 said, you must create an MD5 hash from the user's email address which is then used in a GET request to the gravatar server.

The easiest way to gain access to MD5 hashes is through Digest, part of the ActionPack (inside ActionView) gem. Place the following in 'config/environment.rb':

require 'digest'

Now you only need to use the following where you wish to display the user's gravatar:

image_tag("http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=#{Digest::MD5::hexdigest(@user.email)}", :alt => 'Avatar', :class => 'avatar')

This requires no additional gems and you can create a helper as needed if all you require is pulling in the user's gravatar.

Upvotes: 8

Terry
Terry

Reputation: 1088

There's a Gravatar Rails plugin that can be found here:

http://gravatarplugin.rubyforge.org/

Install the plugin like this:

  ruby script/plugin install svn://rubyforge.org//var/svn/gravatarplugin/plugins/gravatar

After installing the plugin, if your model responds to an 'email' method, this tag will show the Gravatar:

  <%= gravatar_for @user %>

Upvotes: 1

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