A Change.org API Ruby Library Gem

A Ruby library for the Change.org API. This is a personal project and not an official library from Change.org.

The HTTParty gem is required.

gem install httparty

Then install change-ruby:

gem install change-ruby

Obtain a Change.org API key and secret token at change.org/developers.

The full Change.org documentation can be found on Github here.

This gem allows you to interact with all* resources currently available by Change.org's API:

• Petitions
  • Signatures
  • Targets of the petition ("targets")
  • Reasons for signing ("reasons")
  • News updates ("updates")
• Users
• Organizations
  • Petitions created

* See TODO list at the bottom of this page for resources coming soon.

First, require the library:

require 'change-ruby'

Then set up a Client object to talk to Change.org. You'll need your Change.org API key. If you intend to make requests to modify an existing resource (e.g. add signatures to a petition), you'll also need to supply your secret token. If you only intend to retrieve information, you can leave it off.

client = Change::Requests::Client.new({ :api_key => 'my_api_key', :secret_token => 'my_secret_token' })

For convenience, include the resources module:

include Change::Resources

To retrieve an existing resource on Change.org and use it in your code, you need to create a shell object and then load it with its information.

For example, to get a petition, first declare it locally and specify the client it will use to make requests:

petition = Petition.new(client)

Then, load the petition from its unique Change.org ID:

petition.load(132448)

If you don't know the petition's ID, you can use the get_id method with the petition's URL:

petition.get_id("http://www.change.org/petitions/dunkin-donuts-stop-using-styrofoam-cups-and-switch-to-a-more-eco-friendly-solution")

You can also skip that step and just load the petition by the URL:

petition.load("http://www.change.org/petitions/dunkin-donuts-stop-using-styrofoam-cups-and-switch-to-a-more-eco-friendly-solution")

Once you load the petition, you can access its properties by its properties attribute:

petition.properties['signature_count']

To retrieve a child resource collection of a particular parent resource, you can use the load method on its collection name. For example:

petition.targets.load

Depending on the resource collection (specified by the documentation), you can also use paging and field modifiers on your requests:

petition.signatures.load({ :page_size => 2, :sort => 'time_desc' })

If you want to modify a resource, such as adding signatures to a petition, you'll need an authorization key. For petitions, you can obtain one on the petition page and then use it in your code. Or you can do it programmatically:

petition.request_auth_key({
  :requester_email => "example@test.com",
  :source => "http://www.mywebsite.com",
  :source_description => "I'll be gathering signatures to help the petition."
})

Change.org will respond with an authorization key that will be automatically added to the authorization keys on petition. Although you'll rarely need to access it directly, you can see your auth key by calling it, or if you have multiple, by specifying which one you want to see:

petition.auth_key
petition.auth_key(1)

Once you have an authorization key for a petition, and your Client object has a secret token specified, you can add signatures to a petition:

petition.signatures.add_signature({
  :email => 'barkley@exampledogs.com',
  :first_name => 'Barkley',
  :last_name => 'Dog',
  :address => '123 Sesame St NW'
  :city => 'Washington',
  :state_province => 'DC',
  :postal_code => '20011',
  :country_code => 'US'
})

That's it! Doing this will use the first auth key by default, and give this signature the source specified in that auth key. But you can also specify a different one to use by adding it as an argument to add_signature.

petition.signatures.add_signature(signature_hash, petition.auth_key(3))

• Add new resource collections:
  • Petitions signed by a user
  • Petitions created by a user
• Have returned properties on resources become attributes on the object, so we can make nice calls like, petition.signature_count instead of petition.properties['signature_count']