A Ruby library for working with the Basecamp web-services API.

For more information about the Basecamp web-services API, visit:

http://developer.37signals.com/basecamp

You can find the original code in:

http://developer.37signals.com/basecamp/basecamp.rb

NOTE: not all of Basecamp’s web-services are accessible via REST. This library provides access to RESTful services via ActiveResource. Services not yet upgraded to REST are accessed via the Basecamp class. Continue reading for more details.

Installation

gem install basecamp

Establishing a Connection

The first thing you need to do is establish a connection to Basecamp. This requires your Basecamp site address and your login credentials. Example:

Basecamp.establish_connection!('you.grouphub.com', 'username', 'password')

This is the same whether you’re accessing using the ActiveResource interface, or the legacy interface.

Getting API token

If you only have username/password you can get the API token to use in future calls.

Basecamp.establish_connection!('you.grouphub.com', 'username', 'password')
Basecamp.get_token

Using the REST interface via ActiveResource

The REST interface is accessed via ActiveResource, a popular Ruby library that implements object-relational mapping for REST web-services. For more information on working with ActiveResource, see:

* http://api.rubyonrails.org/files/activeresource/README.html
* http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveResource/Base.html

Finding a Resource

Find a specific resource using the find method. Attributes of the resource are available as instance methods on the resulting object. For example, to find a message with the ID of 8675309 and access its title attribute, you would do the following:

m = Basecamp::Message.find(8675309)
m.title # => 'Jenny'

To find all messages for a given project, use find(:all), passing the project_id as a parameter to find. Example:

messages = Basecamp::Message.find(:all, params => { :project_id => 1037 })
messages.size # => 25

Creating a Resource

Create a resource by making a new instance of that resource, setting its attributes, and saving it. If the resource requires a prefix to identify it (as is the case with resources that belong to a sub-resource, such as a project), it should be specified when instantiating the object. Examples:

m = Basecamp::Message.new(:project_id => 1037)
m.category_id = 7301
m.title = 'Message in a bottle'
m.body = 'Another lonely day, with no one here but me'
m.save # => true

c = Basecamp::Comment.new(:post_id => 25874)
c.body = 'Did you get those TPS reports?'
c.save # => true

You can also create a resource using the create method, which will create and save it in one step. Example:

Basecamp::TodoItem.create(:todo_list_id => 3422, :contents => 'Do it')

Updating a Resource

To update a resource, first find it by its id, change its attributes, and save it. Example:

m = Basecamp::Message.find(8675309)
m.body = 'Changed'
m.save # => true

Deleting a Resource

To delete a resource, use the delete method with the ID of the resource you want to delete. Example:

Basecamp::Message.delete(1037)

Attaching Files to a Resource

If the resource accepts file attachments, the attachments parameter should be an array of Basecamp::Attachment objects. Example:

a1 = Basecamp::Attachment.create('primary', File.read('primary.doc'))
a2 = Basecamp::Attachment.create('another', File.read('another.doc'))

m = Basecamp::Message.new(:project_id => 1037)
...
m.attachments = [a1, a2]
m.save # => true

Using the non-REST inteface

The non-REST interface is accessed via instance methods on the Basecamp class. Ensure you’ve established a connection, then create a new Basecamp instance and call methods on it. Object attributes are accessible as methods. Example:

session = Basecamp.new
person = session.person(93832) # => #<Record(person)..>
person.first_name # => "Jason"

Contributors

  • jamesarosen

  • defeated

  • justinbarry