Ferret talk - Nov 2007 - Partial Class Definition if Ferret Server Not Running

When using a remote ferret server, if the ferret server is not running  
the acts_as_ferret class method will raise an exception. This causes  
the model class to only be partially defined, and therefore all use of  
that class in the rails application will explode until the rails  
process is restarted.
This stems from the fact that ensure_index_exists is called on the  
server just before the end of the acts_as_ferret class method. This  
brings up a few questions:
1) Why can''t remote_index call ensure_index_exists on the fly similar  
to how local_index does it? Can''t this be done in the server on the  
fly? What about rebuilding all indexes in the server using  
ensure_index_exists at start up time, instead of being called for each  
class during class definition?
2) There seems to be a lot of generic functionality in local_index  
that could be moved up to the abstract index, and therefor expand the  
functionality of the remote_index class. Are there any reasons this  
hasn''t been done yet?
Either way, this needs to be corrected because allowing an exception  
to raise during class definition is a very bad thing. I''d be more than
happy to submit a patch if someone points me in the right direction  
regarding the correct way to resolve this (in remote_index or  
ferret_sever).
Having the ferret_server check the indexes when it starts seems to be  
the correct idea, instead of having them checked once for each class  
in each rails process as it starts. Thanks.

-- 
Peter Jones
pmade inc.  - http://pmade.com