Undefined method - what am I missing?

Rails
1

This has to be another one of those really easy obvious ones, but I just
can’t figure it out…

I have a boolean field called “public” to designate whether a record in
my database should be viewable by the public, or only by people signed
in.

In my controller, I have:
------------app/controllers/sources_controller.rb--------------
class SourcesController < ApplicationController

…

def find_public
Source.find_by_live(true)
end

def find_private
Source.find_by_live(false)
end
end

Then, in my view, I have:
-------------app/views/users/show.html.erb---------------------
<% @user.sources.public do |c| %>


  • <%= c.editor %>,
    <%= link_to c.title, :controller => “sources”, :action =>
    “show_cat”, :id => c.id %>
    (<%= c.publication %>, <%= c.pub_date %>).


    <%= link_to “Edit”, {:controller => “sources”, :action =>
    ‘edit’, :id => c.id} %> |
    <%= link_to “Delete”, {:controller => “sources”, :action =>
    ‘delete’, :id => c.id},
    :confirm => “Are you sure you want to delete this record
    permanently?” %>



    • <% end %>

    When I run this, I get a no method error: “undefined method
    `find_public’”

    It doesn’t work in the console either:

    Source.find_private
    NoMethodError: undefined method find_private' for #<Class:0x2f36a18> from /usr/pkg/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/base.rb:1667:inmethod_missing’
    from (irb):1

    I know this is something simple, but I can’t figure it out.

    Thanks so much for your help!
    Morgan.

    2

    On Aug 19, 12:07 am, Morgan K. [email protected]
    wrote:

    When I run this, I get a no method error: “undefined method
    `find_public’”

    It doesn’t work in the console either:>> Source.find_private

    NoMethodError: undefined method `find_private’ for #Class:0x2f36a18
    from

    Well you’ve defined an instance method on SourcesController, but
    you’re trying to call a class method on Source instead. Not sure how
    you were expecting that to work. public is a magic word in ruby but
    you might be able to get away with it here.

    Fred

    3

    Well you’ve defined an instance method on SourcesController, but
    you’re trying to call a class method on Source instead. Not sure how
    you were expecting that to work. public is a magic word in ruby but
    you might be able to get away with it here.

    Yes, I’m new to all of this, and I knew I was doing it wrong… But can
    you help me figure out how to do it right?

    4

    Frederick C. wrote:

    public is a magic word in ruby but
    you might be able to get away with it here.

    Fred

    Right, the boolean field is called “live”, not “public”… sorry for
    that confusion…

    5

    On Aug 19, 12:22 am, Morgan K. [email protected]
    wrote:

    Well you’ve defined an instance method on SourcesController, but
    you’re trying to call a class method on Source instead. Not sure how
    you were expecting that to work. public is a magic word in ruby but
    you might be able to get away with it here.

    Yes, I’m new to all of this, and I knew I was doing it wrong… But can
    you help me figure out how to do it right?

    Well if you want to be able to say Source.find_private then you need

    class Source < ActiveRecord::Base
    def self.find_private
    …
    end
    end

    or (equivalently)

    class Source < ActiveRecord::Base
    class << self
    def find_private
    …
    end
    end
    end

    There’s a slightly magic incantation needed to make a class method,
    but if it’s not obvious why defining find_private on SourcesController
    is completely nonsensical then I suggest you read up on you object
    oriented programming (something like the pickaxe will introduce you to
    that and ruby at the same time)

    Fred