No Method Error in Stories#bin

[sammyman]

I am around page 329 when I noticed this error. It seems like it is not happy with my user login information. This error appears when I try to view the "upcoming stories" page.

Thanks

NoMethodError in Stories#bin

Showing app/views/stories/_story.html.erb where line #4 raised:

You have a nil object when you didn't expect it!
The error occurred while evaluating nil.login
Extracted source (around line #4):

1: <% div_for(story) do %>
2: 	<h3><%= link_to story.name, story %></h3>
3: 	<p>
4: 		Submitted by: <%= story.user.login %> | 
5: 		Score: <%= story.votes_count %>
6: 	</p>
7: <% end %>
Trace of template inclusion: app/views/stories/index.html.erb

RAILS_ROOT: /Users/slam/Code/shovell

Application Trace | Framework Trace | Full Trace
/Users/slam/Code/shovell/app/views/stories/_story.html.erb:4:in `_run_erb_app47views47stories47_story46html46erb_locals_object_story_story_counter'
/Users/slam/Code/shovell/app/views/stories/_story.html.erb:1:in `_run_erb_app47views47stories47_story46html46erb_locals_object_story_story_counter'
/Users/slam/Code/shovell/app/views/stories/index.html.erb:4:in `_run_erb_app47views47stories47index46html46erb'
/Users/slam/Code/shovell/app/controllers/stories_controller.rb:24:in `bin'

[Delameko]

If you look at the stack trace at the bottom it's leading you towards the problem:

/Users/slam/Code/shovell/app/controllers/stories_controller.rb:24:in `bin'

stories_controller.rb - line 24, it's trying to load the bin method, but it's not finding it.

What does your stories_controller.rb look like?

[sammyman]

If you look at the stack trace at the bottom it's leading you towards the problem:

/Users/slam/Code/shovell/app/controllers/stories_controller.rb:24:in `bin'

stories_controller.rb - line 24, it's trying to load the bin method, but it's not finding it.

What does your stories_controller.rb look like?

   def bin
     fetch_stories 'votes_count < 5'
     render :action => 'index'
   end  
   protected
   def fetch_stories(conditions)
     @stories = Story.find :all,
        :order => 'id DESC', 
        :conditions => conditions
   end

That is the line 24 which is calling index. Index.rhtml is

<h2>
	<%= story_list_heading %></h2>
</h2>
<%= render :partial => @stories %>

[Delameko]

Actually, it's my bad, I was in a hurry (had just finished work) and misinterpreted the error message.

It's trying to load a method on line 4 of your _story.html.erb partial, that it can't find.

[sammyman]

Actually, it's my bad, I was in a hurry (had just finished work) and misinterpreted the error message.

It's trying to load a method on line 4 of your _story.html.erb partial, that it can't find.

Thanks for the help. The code is in my first post. I checked it and it appears correct to me. Any other ideas?

[ReggieB]

The problem is that story.user is returning a nil object. When Ruby then looks for the method 'login' on the object returned by story.user it can't find that method - the nil object doesn't have one.

Basically, the error means you don't have a user associated to the story. This could happen because of one of the following:

1. No user has been assigned to the story
2. The user that was assigned to the story has been deleted or altered in a way that broke the association.
3. The code that associates users with with stories is broken.

You could handle the problem by altering line 4 to:

 Submitted by: <&#37;= story.user ? story.user.login : 'unknown' -%> |

Alternatively add code to ensure that a user is always associated with a story.