Rails - Jan 2009 - Got an error on returning data as json format when the data is nil

Hi there,

One of my app''s actions returns data as a json format.
If the data exists, everything works perfect.
But if the data is nil, I get the following error.
--------------------------------
ActionView::MissingTemplate (Missing template user/show.erb in view
path /var/www/my_app/releases/20090110234348/app/views:):
    /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/
template.rb:95:in `find_full_path''
    /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/
template.rb:16:in `initialize''
    /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/
base.rb:332:in `new''
    /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.2.2/lib/action_view/
base.rb:332:in `_unmemoized__pick_template''
    /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.2.2/lib/
active_support/memoizable.rb:70:in `_pick_template''
--------------------------------

I don''t know why rails requires a template file only when the data is
nil. Anybody knows the reason ?

Here is a snippet from the controller.
---------------------------------------------------
class UserController < ApplicationController

  def show
    name = params[:name]

    person = User.find_by_name(name)

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html # show.html.erb
      format.json  { render :json => person }
    end
  end

end
-----------------------------------------------------

How can I avoid this situation ???

Thanks in advance.

-wolfgang

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wolfgang wrote:
> How can I avoid this situation ???
I don''t know specifically why Rails generates that particular error,
but
that doesn''t really matter, because render :json => nil is not
valid.
You need to check for nil and respond with a properly constructed error 
response, including the proper HTTP error status. I think most people 
response with a 404 - Page not found in this case, but I''m not 
completely sure of that.
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

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Hi Robert,

Thanks for reply.

So does it mean JSON cannot represent a single nil object ? serious !?

Ajax calls the action and it can treat the error as nil object as you mentioned
but isn''t it ugly ???

thanks in advance.

wolfgang

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 8:39 AM, Robert Walker
<rails-mailing-list-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>
> wolfgang wrote:
>> How can I avoid this situation ???
> I don''t know specifically why Rails generates that particular
error, but
> that doesn''t really matter, because render :json => nil is not
valid.
> You need to check for nil and respond with a properly constructed error
> response, including the proper HTTP error status. I think most people
> response with a 404 - Page not found in this case, but I''m not
> completely sure of that.
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
> >
>
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