zmerlinz has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi, I am trying to use Flickr::API, but i am stuck behind a proxy. According to the documentation, Flickr::API is a subclass of LWP::UserAgent, so all of the various proxy, request limits, caching, etc are available. so i've tried setting the proxy with 
require LWP::UserAgent;
 my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
$ua->proxy('http', 'http://wwwcache.aber.ac.uk:8080/');




my $api = new Flickr::API({'key' => ''}); #There is an api key here!

my $response = $api->execute_method('flickr.test.echo', {
                            'foo' => 'bar',
                            'baz' => 'quux',
                                    });
$ua->get($response);

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but i get an error saying "Can't use a Flickr::API::Response object as a URI at /usr/share/perl5/HTTP/Request/Common.pm line 104" any ideas to why i am getting this ? full code is 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

 use Flickr::API;
use Data::Dumper;


require LWP::UserAgent;
 my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
$ua->proxy('http', 'http://wwwcache.aber.ac.uk:8080/');


my $api = new Flickr::API({'key' => ''}); #there is normally an API ke
+y here

my $response = $api->execute_method('flickr.test.echo', {
                            'foo' => 'bar',
                            'baz' => 'quux',
                                    });
$ua->get($response);

 print "Success: $response->{success}\n";
 print "Error code: $response->{error_code}\n";
 print Dumper ($response);

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Thank you for your time and help with this.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Flickr::API and using a proxy
by fauxmarc (Initiate) on Dec 08, 2006 at 16:23 UTC
    instead of explicitly creating a separate LWP::UserAgent object, have you tried setting the proxy directly in the Flickr::API object like so?

    $api->proxy('http', 'http://wwwcache.aber.ac.uk:8080//');
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      Exactly! The LWP object ($ua) had the proxy set, and then the code creates a completely different object in $api.

      This is why setting the proxy on $api works: Flickr::API is a subclass of LWP::UserAgent - so any method that LWP::UserAgent has, Flickr::API has (subject to Flickr::API overriding said method).

      To speak metaphorically, if LWP ::UserAgent was a quart of milk, and Flickr::API a quart of chocolate milk, you poured a glass of milk ($ua = LWP::UserAgent->new) and a glass of chocolate milk ($api = Flickr::API->new()), put a straw in the glass of milk (setting up the proxy on $ua), and then couldn't drink the chocolate milk because it didn't have a straw in it (you needed to call the proxy() method on $api).

[reply]
      ah it make sense now :) because Flickr::API is a subclass of LWP::UserAgent, i can use the same switches, in this case proxy. Works a treat now thank you :)
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Re: Flickr::API and using a proxy
by Corion (Patriarch) on Dec 08, 2006 at 14:14 UTC

    Have you tried without using a proxy? Does that change the error message?

    Your error is that $ua->get() expects an URI, while the $api-> calls return something else. While Perl does try to guess your intents, you cannot simply paste together the synopses of different modules and expect them to work.

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      if i try with out the proxy, the dumper tells me that the connection was refused to www.flickr.com:80 so it does seem that it needs to be told about the proxy to get out to flickr.com
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        Sorry - my first question was misleading then. Try print Dumper $response to see what actually gets returned from Flickr::API and then you should know why $ua->get() on that doesn't work.

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