Submit POST data from controller to another website in Rails

Sorry, I neglected to mention that I was connecting to secure server. This seems to have been the reason that I was getting end of file errors. Adding using 'net/https' and calling use_ssl on connection solved the problem. Thanks for everyones help.

require 'net/https'
require 'open-uri'

url = URI.parse('https://MY_URL')
req = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url.path)
req.form_data = data
req.basic_auth url.user, url.password if url.user
con = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
con.use_ssl = true
con.start {|http| http.request(req)}    

This is based off the source for the post_form method, so i guess I'll give vlad.zloteanu the answer.

The simpliest way is using ruby core library:

require "uri"
require "net/http"

params = {'box1' => 'Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor. -Emily Post',
'button1' => 'Submit'
}
x = Net::HTTP.post_form(URI.parse('http://www.interlacken.com/webdbdev/ch05/formpost.asp'), params)
puts x.body

Pro Tip: Do an asynchronous request, using a gem like delayed_job or background_rb

If the external server is RESTful, then simply create an ActiveResource model to handle your data.

I don't think redirect_to handles post requests because it uses http 302 (?) which just GETs the other page.

I believe you can do something like this

Class MyController < ActionController
    require 'net/http'

    def my_method
        #do something with the data/model

        my_connection = Net::HTTP.new('www.target.com', 80)
        reponse = my_connection.post(path_within_url, data)

        #do something with response if you want
    end

end

note: this is air coded and has not been tried or tested