NoMethodError in Stories#show

Rails
1

I’m a Rails newbie and am working my way through Simply Rails 2 by
Patrick Lenz.

Have run into a problem on page 207 of the book; this is the error I
run into when I fire up my server and open up httpL//localhost:3000/
stories/new I have posted the error message and trace below.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Showing app/views/stories/show.html.rb where line #1 raised:

You have a nil object when you didn’t expect it!
The error occurred while evaluating nil.name
Extracted source (around line #1):

1:

<%= @story.name %>


2:

<%= link_to @story.link, @story.link %>


RAILS_ROOT: /Users/pdenlinger/Sites/In_Development/shovell

Application Trace | Framework Trace | Full Trace
app/views/stories/show.html.rb:1
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/
renderable.rb:39:in send' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/ renderable.rb:39:inrender’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/
template.rb:73:in render_template' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/base.rb: 256:inrender’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/base.rb:
367:in _render_with_layout' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/base.rb: 254:inrender’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
base.rb:1174:in render_for_file' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/ base.rb:896:inrender_without_benchmark’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
benchmarking.rb:51:in render' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.2.2/lib/active_support/ core_ext/benchmark.rb:8:inrealtime’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
benchmarking.rb:51:in render' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/ base.rb:868:inrender_without_benchmark’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
benchmarking.rb:51:in render' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.2.2/lib/active_support/ core_ext/benchmark.rb:8:inrealtime’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
benchmarking.rb:51:in render' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/ base.rb:1248:indefault_render’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
base.rb:1259:in perform_action_without_filters' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/ filters.rb:617:incall_filters’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
filters.rb:610:in perform_action_without_benchmark' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/ benchmarking.rb:68:inperform_action_without_rescue’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
benchmarking.rb:68:in perform_action_without_rescue' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/ rescue.rb:136:inperform_action_without_caching’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
caching/sql_cache.rb:13:in perform_action' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.2.2/lib/active_record/ connection_adapters/abstract/query_cache.rb:34:incache’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.2.2/lib/active_record/
query_cache.rb:8:in cache' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/ caching/sql_cache.rb:12:inperform_action’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
base.rb:524:in send' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/ base.rb:524:inprocess_without_filters’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
filters.rb:606:in process_without_session_management_support' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/ session_management.rb:134:inprocess’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_controller/
base.rb:392:in process' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.2.2/lib/webrick_server.rb:74:inservice’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.2.2/lib/commands/servers/
webrick.rb:66
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.2.2/lib/active_support/
dependencies.rb:153:in require' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.2.2/lib/active_support/ dependencies.rb:521:innew_constants_in’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.2.2/lib/active_support/
dependencies.rb:153:in `require’
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.2.2/lib/commands/server.rb:49

2

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 6:32 PM, [email protected]
[email protected] wrote:

Showing app/views/stories/show.html.rb where line #1 raised:

In your “stories” controller, in your “show” method, are instantiating
a @story object? Do you see something like

@story = Story.find(…)

?

You have a nil object when you didn’t expect it!
The error occurred while evaluating nil.name
Extracted source (around line #1):

1:

<%= @story.name %>

Cause down here in your view you seem to be expecting one.

–
Greg D.
http://destiney.com/

3

2009/9/30 [email protected] [email protected]:

Showing app/views/stories/show.html.rb where line #1 raised:

You have a nil object when you didn’t expect it!
The error occurred while evaluating nil.name
Extracted source (around line #1):

1:

<%= @story.name %>

The error means that when it tries to display @story.name then @story
is nil. This likely means that the find used to setup @story in your
controller did not find a record.

I suggest having a look at the rails guide on Testing Rails Apps at
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/ This may help you to work out what is
wrong. In addition the Getting Started guide and ActiveRecord
Associations are compulsory reading.

Colin

4

Yes, I do have a method in the stories_controller.rb file. I have
copied the contents of the file below:

class StoriesController < ApplicationController
def index
@story = Story.find(:first, :order => ‘RANDOM()’)
end
def new
@story = Story.new
end
def create
@story = Story.new(params[:story])
if @story.save
flash[:notice] = ‘Story submission succeeded’
redirect_to stories_path
else
render :action => ‘new’
end
def show
@story = Story.find(params[:id])
end
end
end

Following is the content of the show.html.rb file:

<%= @story.name %>

<%= link_to @story.link, @story.link %>

Still not quite sure what is wrong.

Thanks!

5 
if @story.save

Following is the content of the show.html.rb file:

<%= @story.name %>

<%= link_to @story.link, @story.link %>

Well if you are using routes like: <% map.resources :stories %>
Then your show url should be like <% http://[HTTP_HOST]/stories/1/ %>
with HTTP GET method.
If you are using ajax request then make sure you set the HTTP method
to GET in your <% link_to_remote %> method.

And if you are not using routes then Manish already indicated a
possibility :smiley:

Over all make sure you are getting the story id in your params[:id]
variable in show action.

Hope you will be able to find out the problem :slight_smile:
Thank you.

Samiron paul

6

Hey paul

can u paste your show url.

bcoz in your show method you have write

def show
@story = Story.find(params[:id])
end

your url must be…
http//localhost:3000/stories/show/id

so please paste your show url where you get error.

Colin L. wrote:

2009/9/30 [email protected] [email protected]:

Showing app/views/stories/show.html.rb where line #1 raised:

You have a nil object when you didn’t expect it!
The error occurred while evaluating nil.name
Extracted source (around line #1):

1:

<%= @story.name %>

The error means that when it tries to display @story.name then @story
is nil. This likely means that the find used to setup @story in your
controller did not find a record.

I suggest having a look at the rails guide on Testing Rails Apps at
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/ This may help you to work out what is
wrong. In addition the Getting Started guide and ActiveRecord
Associations are compulsory reading.

Colin