EspnRb

A ruby wrapper for the ESPN api. It allows you to interact, in a semantically pleasing way, with the ESPN api. Currently it only allows access to the publicly available Headline API which can be found here. I am working to bring more of ESPN's features to espn_rb. While I do that I'll try to keep this document updated to its current functionality. That said, I hope you enjoy.

in mind. ^_^

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem "espn_rb"

In order to use espn_rb you need to first get an API key from ESPN ESPN api request. Once you've gotten that squared away you can use the public requests straight away.

Set your API key

The easiest way to set your api key for use with espn_rb is to export it as an environment variable. Do that like so:

 $ export espn_api_key=YOUR_SUPER_SECRET_API_KEY

If you want to pass it in to your objects you may do so explicitly like so:

  espn = EspnRb.headlines(:api_key => YOUR_SUPER_SECRET_API_KEY)

For the sake of simplicity all my examples will assume that you have exported the API key as an environment variable.

Espn Headines

Instantiate the EspnRb object and check the headlines.

Get all headlines

require 'espn_rb'
espn = Espn.headlines

espn.all
#=> HeadlineResponse

Which will return an HeadlineResponse object.

Get ESPN response as a hash

To get the response straight from the horses' mouth:

# from above

espn.all.response
#=> ESPN's response string as a hash

The raw response from ESPN will give you the top ten stories meeting your criteria.

HeadlineResponse

Now includes Enumerable which allows you to treat the HeadlineResponse as an iterable object.

espn = EspnRb.headlines
espn.all.map(&:title)

#=> ["Celtics-Clippers Preview",
#    "Warriors 97, Clippers 93",
#    "Hawks 106, Kings 99",
#    "Warriors-Clippers, Box",
#    "Warriors 97, Clippers 93",
#    "Hawks 106, Kings 99",
#    "Bucks-Nets Preview",
#    "Hawks-Kings, Box",
#    "Grizzlies 94, Nuggets 91",
#    "Grizzlies-Nuggets, Box"]

Collections

Since the above response is a basic collection and each headline share many common attributes there are collection methods defined on the HeadlineResponse object. Use them like so.

# from above

# Available methods are [headlines descriptions sources bylines types]

espn.all.response.titles
#=> ["array", "of", "ESPN", "titles"]

espn.all.response.descriptions
#=> ["array", "of", "ESPN", "descriptions"]

# etc...

API methods

When calling on the api to get new data you can pass any (soon) of the methods supported by the API.

espn = EspnRb.headlines

espn.nba(:news) #=> HeadlineResponse
espn.nba(:top)  #=> HeadlineResponse
espn.nba(:for_date => "2012-03-09")  #=> HeadlineResponse # Will include all stories for that date
espn.nba(:for_athlete => "1234")     #=> HeadlineResponse # Will include all stories for that athleteId

HeadlineItem

The HeadlineResponse Object holdes in it the headlines split into HeadlineItems. Here is where you can get Specific information about each story. Some of the options are:

espn = EspnRb.headlines
headline_item = espn.nba[2] #=> HeadlineItem

headline_item.web_url #=> "http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=nba&id=7664408&ex_cid=espnapi_public"
headline_item.id #=> 7664408
headline_item.title #=> "Mavericks-Kings Preview"
headline_item.athletes #=> ["Johnny B", "Freddie Flintstone", "Etc"]
headline_item.leagues #=> ["46"]
headline_item.athlete_ids #=> ["123", "132", "123"]

# More to come in future versions.
headline_response.headline #=> JSON hash from original response.

HeadlineItem will now also respond to #images which will return an HeadlineResponse::HeadlineItem::Images class which contains the images associated with the HeadlineItem in a class that is also enumerable which lets you access the images with nice little methods like:

espn = EspnRb.headlines
headline_item = espn.nfl[2]

headline_item.images => HeadlineResponse::HeadlineItem::Images

# or to actually use the images

images = headline_item.images

images.first.landscape #=> true
images.first.url #=> http://path-to-img.com/blah-blah-blah

# or list all the urls

images.map(&:url) #=>  ["list", "of", "image", "urls"]

HELP

espn = Espn.headlines
espn.help
#=> methods/descriptions below....

You are currently using the headlines api from here you can do the follow:

Method                    Description

:all                      News across all sports/sections
:golf                     Golf
:boxing                   Boxing
:mma                      Mixed Martial Arts
:racing                   Auto Racing
:soccer                   Professional soccer (US focus)
:tennis                   Tennis
:mlb                      Major League Baseball (MLB)
:nba                      National Basketball Association (NBA)
:nfl                      National Football League (NFL)
:nhl                      National Hockey League (NHL)
:nascar                   NASCAR racing
:wnba                     Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
:ncaa_basketball          NCAA Men's College Basketball
:ncaa_football            NCAA College Football
:ncaa_womens_basketball   NCAA Women's College Basketball

---

I am actively work on this. Check the commit log to see where I'm at, and check the issues to see how you can contribute.

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Added some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request