# Default page and session\[\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 21, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/default-page-and-session/64020 "2006-06-21T13:21:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sebastian_Winkler)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/default-page-and-session/64020/1 "2006-06-21T13:21:15Z")
Hi Everybody! As a newcomer to this list and to Rails per se I would like to to post my silly newbie questions â?? be patient: 1. I’m not able to get rid of the welcome-aboard-screen. It says: > 1. Set up a default route and remove or rename this file > > Routes are setup in config/routes.rb. > I’ve done the routing part â?? at least I think I have! Now, as for the > removing or renaming of _that_ file: where on earth is it?!?! 1. I want to use session[:language] to save the current working language between requests. But whenever I mention the yet unassigned symbol of session Rails throughs an exception: > NoMethodError in ExpressionsController#list > > You have a nil object when you didn’t expect it! > You might have expected an instance of Array. > The error occured while evaluating nil.[] > The method causing the error is > def get\_language > session[:language] ||= Language.find(1) > end Your help is greatly appreciated! - Sebastian ---
**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sebastian_Winkler)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 1:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/default-page-and-session/64020/2 "2006-06-21T13:27:58Z")
> 1. I’m not able to get rid of the welcome-aboard-screen. It says: > 2. Set up a default route and remove or rename this file > > > Routes are setup in config/routes.rb. > > I’ve done the routing part â?? at least I think I have! Now, as for the > > removing or renaming of _that_ file: where on earth is it?!?! Don’t feel bad! I just spent three days last week working on this!! The file they are referring to is /public/indx.html I simply renamed mine, then set up a default rout (map.connect ‘’, :controller =\> ‘www’) and it worked like a charm! Not too sure about #2 at the moment… hope someone else can contribute there! HTH, -Luke ---
**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sebastian_Winkler)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/default-page-and-session/64020/3 "2006-06-21T14:14:13Z")
Sebastian Winkler wrote: > > You might have expected an instance of Array. > > The error occured while evaluating nil.[] > > The method causing the error is > > def get\_language > > session[:language] ||= Language.find(1) > > end truth be told, i’m not really out of the class of Newbies, but my guess would be one of two…either you haven’t defined the session(or is it @session) in the right place(are you putting this in the appcontroller/…?) or the specified language (1) isn’t found in the model…if you aren’t going to use many languages, couldn’t you go like this: @session[:language] ||= ‘english’ @session[:language] ||= ‘spanish’ … good luck either way, s ---
**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sebastian_Winkler)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/default-page-and-session/64020/4 "2006-06-21T15:23:13Z")
For #2: Session access can only be done in a controller. It should work as a method call, but just to be safe, go ahead and treat it as an i-var, and put an @, as so: By the way, just so you know, the Ruby Way is to have varname() and varname=(), not get\_varname(), set\_varname() def language @session[:language] ||= Language.find(1) end Jason ---
**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sebastian_Winkler)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/default-page-and-session/64020/5 "2006-06-22T14:19:41Z")
> The file they are referring to is /public/indx.html > Thanks, Luke!! Murule, the declaration is in a subclass of ApplicationController where session[] should be accessible. Murule and Jason, I really think it should be session[], not @session []; it’s not an instance variable I’m trying to access? Strangely, I seem to have been able to temporarily overcome this error ? not knowing how, though. But now I have done some reorganizing within the controller and I’m faced with the same situation again. As always it’s probably something totally simple but easy to overlook for the beginner. - Sebastian P.S. Jason, you’re right the way the method is formulated should have been called just ‘language’.\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Rails mailing list removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) ---
**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Sebastian\_Winkler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sebastian_Winkler)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/default-page-and-session/64020/6 "2006-06-22T15:12:33Z")
Well, this seems to be the solution: I was calling the method from the controller’s initialize method, at which point session apparently isn’t accessible yet. I moved the call to the before\_filter and now it works. Thanks for your efforts, guys! - Sebastian