Callback function - php

Question

So in JavaScript, I used to be able to have an http request initiate a callback when AJAX sent a response back to some data I sent to the server, successfully being a callback function. I'm now experimenting with the OAuth2 gem for Ruby, and I'm finding callbacks to not be the same;
I have a web server and facebook app set up, and I have a small php script that writes the current URL (including the auth code, for example) to a file, no problem. All the settings in the facebook app are set up, and if I put this in the URL in the browser:
http://graph.facebook.com/oauth/authorize?client_id=[my_client_id]&redirect_uri=http://localhost/oauth/callback/index.php
It redirects successfully to that script, which then writes the authorization code to a file which I can then use to get the access token. Problem is that I can only do this process manually; using the Net::HTTP.get(URI(address)) command in ruby doesn't seem to initiate the php script.
Ayone have any ideas?

Answer 1

I have no idea why you posted your history with javascript ajax requests, as it has no bearing on your ruby script, which by the way doesn't even use a callback method/function. Using a callback function just means you are calling some function and passing it another function as an argument. When I started programming, the term callback function was very confusing to me, and in my opinion the term should be dropped from the lingo.
As for your ruby script, you need to use something like Firebug to look at the request headers that are being sent by your browser to the server when you manually enter the url in your browser. If you use those same headers in your ruby script, then it should work, e.g.:
req['header1'] = 'hello'
req['header2'] = '10'
or:
headers = {
'header1' => 'hello',
'header2' => '10',
...
}
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri, headers)
http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
resp = http.request(req)
It's possible that you have a cookie set in your browser, which your browser automatically adds to the request headers when it sends the request to the server. Your browser probably adds thousands of headers to the request--many of which will have no bearing on your problem. If you have the patience, you can try to figure out which header is causing your ruby script's request to malfunction.
Another option is to use the mechanize gem, which will automatically handle cookies and redirects for requests sent by ruby scripts:
http://docs.seattlerb.org/mechanize/GUIDE_rdoc.html
(Read the section Let's Fetch a Page; Don't use the line require 'rubygems' if you are using ruby 1.9+).