HIGH PRIORITY rest-client gem has been abandoned

[techgique]

The gem hasn't had any commits or PRs merged in five years: https://github.com/rest-client/rest-client

We should plan to remove this gem and replace it with core Ruby code using the Net::HTTP library: https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/master/Net/HTTP.html

Or there may be another gem that is simpler to use and still maintained, but if it's not that difficult it's better to reduce dependencies and stick with core Ruby code so problems like this with abandoned dependencies don't bite us (or future maintainers) down the road.

[techgique]

As mentioned in more recent discussion of this on the rest-client GitHub repo, Faraday is an alternative gem for this kind of code. But if it's not too much hassle, would rather avoid retaining an extra dependency and use the core Ruby library Net:HTTP.

[techgique]

More recent research / reading:
Blog posts on alternatives

• https://www.scrapingbee.com/blog/best-ruby-http-clients/
• https://www.ruby-toolbox.com/categories/http_clients
• https://webscrapingsite.com/blog/the-best-ruby-http-clients-an-experts-guide/
  • Recommends against Ruby stlib Net::HTTP
• Faraday, httparty, excon, and http look like candidates to replace rest-client

[nichgray]

See CDRH/datura#281: sticking with Net:HTTP for now for simplicity's sake, and we can revisit later as needed.