Send_file errors out with nil.update

Rails
1

Hey everyone,

I’ve got a basic setup via an apache2 server, virtualhost ect. At the
moment I’m just trying to use the send_file function of rails
(actionpack I believe?) but it continues to error out. Here is the
breakdown:

#Controller#

class Misc < ApplicationController

def stuff
send_file("#{RAILS_ROOT}/downloads/test.txt")
end

end

#View#

<% a = Misc.new %>

<%= a.stuff %>

And this is the error I’ve been getting:

You have a nil object when you didn’t expect it!
The error occurred while evaluating nil.update

Extracted source (around line #3):

2: <% a = Misc.new %>
3:

<%= a.stuff %>

Trace yields the following:

vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/streaming.rb:139:in
send_file_headers!' vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/streaming.rb:72:insend_file’
app/controllers/home_controller.rb:16:in stuff' app/views/home/index.html.erb:3:in_run_erb_47app47views47home47index46html46erb’

Any suggestions?

one thing i will note, dunno if it matters, is that rails 2.3.5 wouldnt
install - kept complaining about rack 1.0.0 runtime, so instead i
installed all the packages and dependencies separately via apt-get
install actionpack -v=2.3.4
ect ect, using 2.3.4 instead

Thanks!

-Regards
Mac

2

On Jan 15, 6:15Â am, Michael L. [email protected] wrote:

 def stuff
  send_file(“#{RAILS_ROOT}/downloads/test.txt”)
 end

end

#View#

<% a = Misc.new %>

<%= a.stuff %>

This looks a little weird - from inside the view you’re trying to
create a new instance of a controller ? This is probably failing
because you haven’t initialized the controller properly. Why not call
send_file from the appropriate controller action ?

Fred

3

Frederick C. wrote:

On Jan 15, 6:15Â am, Michael L. [email protected] wrote:

 def stuff
  send_file(“#{RAILS_ROOT}/downloads/test.txt”)
 end

end

#View#

<% a = Misc.new %>

<%= a.stuff %>

This looks a little weird - from inside the view you’re trying to
create a new instance of a controller ? This is probably failing
because you haven’t initialized the controller properly. Why not call
send_file from the appropriate controller action ?

Fred

o_O worked without a hitch… why would this be? As you suggested I
threw it back in HomeController (via script/generate controller home
index) under def index and walaa! But why can I not define a new class
to separate objects in the same controller?

Regards,

  • Mac
4

On Jan 15, 3:11Â pm, Michael L. [email protected] wrote:

Frederick C. wrote:

o_O worked without a hitch… why would this be? As you suggested I
threw it back in HomeController (via script/generate controller home
index) under def index and walaa!

Because that’s just how it’s supposed to work

But why can I not define a new class
to separate objects in the same controller?

I’m not entirely sure what you’re trying to achieve. You probably
could create a new controller, but you’d need to set it up so that it
thought it was responding to the same http request etc (ie the work
that rails does when a new request comes in). I’m still not sure what
you’d achieve by that though.

Fred