Rails - May 2006 - Initialize, instance variable....wrong number of arguments!

Dear RoR Community

My new RoR experience went really smooth for some time until I got stuck 
with a seemingly easy problem and the more I have tried to read about it 
(PickAxe, Agile WD, forum, etc.) the more confused I got!
What I have done so far as a newbie is to use the scaffold and then 
build my own ideas around it. What I am trying to do now is 
allow/disallow an action in the input form (in this case
''save'')
depending on whether the ''status'' == WIP or not. However with
the code
below I keep getting error messages like ''wrong number of arguments (0 
for 1)'' or ''Template is missing''.
My 2 questions are:
1. Can anyone see what is wrong with my code?
2. Can anyone please give me some info or point me into the direction of 
where I can find info about instance variables, initialization for 
newbies like me?

Thanks a lot,

Alex

class AdminController < ApplicationController
...
 def wipinput
    @job = Job.find(params[:id])
  end

  def initialize(status)
   @status = status
  end

  def wipupdate
      if params[:save] and @status == ''WIP''
          @job = Job.find(params[:id])
          if @job.update_attributes(params[:job])
            @job.update_attribute(:status,"WIP")
            flash[:notice] = ''Job was successfully updated.''
            redirect_to :action => ''wip''
          else
            render :action => ''wipinput''
          end
....

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Hello Alex,

2006/5/13, Alex S?rensen <as@hippolime.com>:
> 1. Can anyone see what is wrong with my code?
Yes, remove the definition of #initialize.  That is overriding the
method with the same name in ApplicationController or above.
> 2. Can anyone please give me some info or point me into the direction of
> where I can find info about instance variables, initialization for
> newbies like me?
Instance variables are initialized to nil when first referenced.  If
you need another value, in Rails, you could use a before filter.  You
have to remember that the controller instance will be recreated for
each new request.

This is the equivalent of calling AdminController.new.wipupdate for
each request.  Please bear in mind that this is not exactly how it
works, but it is similar in concept.

For your specific problem, you should look instead of storing your
status in the user''s session, not in the controller itself.

Hope that helps !
-- 
Fran?ois Beausoleil
http://blog.teksol.info/

Salut Francois, hello ror

Thanks for the amazingly quick response!

After deleting #initialize, the following if statement produces 
''Template missing....wipupdate.rhtml'' even though is_status
equals ''WIP''
and should therefore just return the usual response, i.e. redirect_to 
:action => ''wip'' which works fine if I leave out the second
part of the
if statement (and @is_status == ''WIP''). Any idea?

Thanks a lot, Alex
....
def wipupdate
if params[:save] and @is_status == ''WIP''
...

Fran?ois Beausoleil wrote:
> Hello Alex,
> 
> 2006/5/13, Alex S?rensen <as@hippolime.com>:
>> 1. Can anyone see what is wrong with my code?
> 
> Yes, remove the definition of #initialize.  That is overriding the
> method with the same name in ApplicationController or above.
> 
>> 2. Can anyone please give me some info or point me into the direction
of
>> where I can find info about instance variables, initialization for
>> newbies like me?
> 
> Instance variables are initialized to nil when first referenced.  If
> you need another value, in Rails, you could use a before filter.  You
> have to remember that the controller instance will be recreated for
> each new request.
> 
> This is the equivalent of calling AdminController.new.wipupdate for
> each request.  Please bear in mind that this is not exactly how it
> works, but it is similar in concept.
> 
> For your specific problem, you should look instead of storing your
> status in the user''s session, not in the controller itself.
> 
> Hope that helps !

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.