6PP KVDB with activeresource

model.rb

## Based on example of http://gist.github.com/276455 but change to not use nokogiri but Activeresource

# define file in model directory

class Sixpp < ActiveResource::Base
    class << self
      
      # 6pp returns a xml where first item is hash. We need to enter hash["item"] and then check if there is 1 or more records.
      def instantiate_collection(collection, prefix_options = {})
        unless collection["item"].kind_of? Array
          [instantiate_record(collection["item"], prefix_options)]
        else
          collection["item"].collect! { |record| instantiate_record(record, prefix_options) }
        end
      end
      
      
      
  end
  
  self.site = "http://6pp.kvdb.net/"
  def self.lookup(params = {})
    begin
      if params[:postcode]
        if params[:postcode] =~ /^[1-9]{1}[0-9]{3} ?[a-zA-Z]{2}$/
          params[:postcode] = params[:postcode].gsub(/ /,"")         
        else
          return nil
        end
      end
      find(:all, :from => "/services/lookup", :params => params)
    rescue
      return nil
    end
  end 
end
# now you can use: Sixpp.lookup(:postcode=>'9999 xx') which returns the results in an array
# Sixpp.lookup(:postcode=>'1111 xx')[0].street