Undefined method and auto_complete

pulling my hair out on this because I don’t understand…

I have 2 methods/actions in the same ‘placements’ controller that I am
concerned with…

find, works properly…

view code from find.rhtml

Client
<%= text_field_with_auto_complete :placement, :clwholename, {} %>

new, which throws me an error…
undefined method `clwholename’ for #Placement:0xb78e0dc0

which has the same exact view code as above…

clwholename is an aggregation defined in the Client class which combines
the client first_name, middle_initial, last_name

the controller code for new and find don’t seem to impact this…

def find
@placements = Placement.find(:all)
@clients = Client.find(:all)
end

def new
@placement = Placement.new
@client = Client.find(:all)
end

but just to make sure, I added the 2 lines in the ‘find’ definition,
into the ‘new’ definition and the result is the same.

and I do have the method in my controller that should works for ‘find’
but not ‘new’…

def auto_complete_for_placement_clwholename
auto_complete_responder_for_clients params[:placement][:clwholename]
end

Why would ‘find’ work but not ‘new’ ?

Craig