Got an error on returning data as json format when the data is nil

Rails
1

Hi there,

One of my app’s actions returns data as a json format.
If the data exists, everything works perfect.
But if the data is nil, I get the following error.

ActionView::MissingTemplate (Missing template user/show.erb in view
path /var/www/my_app/releases/20090110234348/app/views:):
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/
template.rb:95:in find_full_path' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/ template.rb:16:ininitialize’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/
base.rb:332:in new' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/ base.rb:332:in_unmemoized__pick_template’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.2.2/lib/
active_support/memoizable.rb:70:in `_pick_template’

I don’t know why rails requires a template file only when the data is
nil. Anybody knows the reason ?

Here is a snippet from the controller.

class UserController < ApplicationController

def show
name = params[:name]

person = User.find_by_name(name)

respond_to do |format|
  format.html # show.html.erb
  format.json  { render :json => person }
end

end

end

How can I avoid this situation ???

Thanks in advance.

-wolfgang

2

wolfgang wrote:

How can I avoid this situation ???
I don’t know specifically why Rails generates that particular error, but
that doesn’t really matter, because render :json => nil is not valid.
You need to check for nil and respond with a properly constructed error
response, including the proper HTTP error status. I think most people
response with a 404 - Page not found in this case, but I’m not
completely sure of that.

3

Hi Robert,

Thanks for reply.

So does it mean JSON cannot represent a single nil object ? serious !?

Ajax calls the action and it can treat the error as nil object as you
mentioned
but isn’t it ugly ???

thanks in advance.

wolfgang

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 8:39 AM, Robert W.