# Globalize WrongLanguageError on attribute \_read\_?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/globalize-wronglanguageerror-on-attribute-read/64503>\
**Category:** Rails I18n\
**Created:** [August 9, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/globalize-wronglanguageerror-on-attribute-read/64503 "2006-08-09T17:07:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kaspar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kaspar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kaspar)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/globalize-wronglanguageerror-on-attribute-read/64503/1 "2006-08-09T17:07:54Z")

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Dear List,

Can somebody enlighten me as to why a WrongLanguageError is thrown when  
I access a stale copy of a model? I fully understand why such an error  
is required upon writing to the object, but on read access? It seems to  
make code more complicated than it needs be. Probably there is some  
blindingly obvious reason for this that helps me see it.

– code example –  
Globalize::Locale.set\_base\_language ‘en-US’

p = Page.find(1) # returns an english page  
Globalize::Locale.set ‘fr-CH’ # p is now the ‘wrong’ language  
puts p.title # This throws WrongLanguageError. Why? The value is  
perfectly ok!  
– code example –

## Thank you for any answer you might have. kaspar

[neotrivium.com](http://neotrivium.com) - the swiss ruby shop

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kaspar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kaspar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kaspar)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 11:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/globalize-wronglanguageerror-on-attribute-read/64503/2 "2006-08-18T11:54:41Z")

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Kaspar S. wrote:

> Dear List,
> 
> Can somebody enlighten me as to why a WrongLanguageError is thrown when  
> I access a stale copy of a model? I fully understand why such an error  
> is required upon writing to the object, but on read access? It seems to  
> make code more complicated than it needs be. Probably there is some  
> blindingly obvious reason for this that helps me see it.
> 
> – code example –  
> Globalize::Locale.set\_base\_language ‘en-US’
> 
> p = Page.find(1) #�returns an english page  
> Globalize::Locale.set ‘fr-CH’ # p is now the ‘wrong’ language  
> puts p.title # This throws WrongLanguageError. Why? The value is  
> perfectly ok!  
> – code example –

because you have to reload your object before. the correct language is  
loaded with the ‘find’, and with the access reader method.

…  
Globalize::Locale.set ‘fr-CH’  
p = Page.find(1)  
puts p.title

will be ok.

> ## Thank you for any answer you might have. kaspar
> 
> [neotrivium.com](http://neotrivium.com) - the swiss ruby shop

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kaspar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kaspar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kaspar)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 9:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/globalize-wronglanguageerror-on-attribute-read/64503/3 "2006-08-25T09:36:14Z")

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> because you have to reload your object before. the correct language is  
> loaded with the ‘find’, and with the access reader method.

Thank you for answering. I guess the question was more a ‘why’ than a  
‘how’ question. I really don’t see why we would put this limitation  
forward and not have a ‘french instance’ always return ‘french data’ and  
an ‘english instance’ always return ‘english data’. More localized  
language context, instead of it being always a global variable.

But since I have asked this question, I have used globalize\_extension  
and am quite happy with the resulting code. ie:

@page.switch\_language(base\_language.code) { @page.title }

Which is more or less clean. Globalize Extension seems to support these  
local context switches I was looking for, not requiring me to

# change locale

# read the value (that I have already in memory, but can’t access

because of bad GLOBAL locale

# change locale back

I profoundly dislike this kind of procedural style. Besides, it just  
screams ‘non thread safe’ and ‘race condition’ - implemented as a global  
variable that is.

So there I went and basically answered my own question - that is  
something of a bad habit. 😉

best greetings,  
kaspar