undefined method `name' for nil:NilClass

Start a new branch in git before you do this! git checkout -b new_branch_name

OK - I'm flying blind here so "it's not working" gives me nothing to go on. What errors do you get - did they change from what you posted before; what page are you visiting when you get those errors; have you restarted the server (you shouldn't need to for that, i don't think); have you tried navigating around your site and was that successful except for this page/view?

now the new error in rails console -

TimeEntry.all.each { |t| t.update_attributes(state: "submitted") }

TimeEntry Load (0.9ms) SELECT account_entries.* FROM account_entries WHERE account_entries.type IN ('TimeEntry') (0.3ms) BEGIN

Account Load (0.6ms) SELECT accounts.* FROM accounts WHERE accounts.id = 1 LIMIT 1

SQL (2.1ms) UPDATE account_entries SET state = 'submitted', updated_at = '2016-03-08 23:46:15' WHERE account_entries.id = 1 (2.6ms) ROLLBACK

NoMethodError: undefined method `update_balance!' for nil:NilClass

What did you type into the console to get that error?

OK. That won't help with the problem. I think you have two employee objects that aren't possessing the updated properties because they were created earlier in the application's development. Those two employees need deleting via the console. This has nothing to do with time entries.

In the console, try something like Employee.first.destroy and see what that does on your Web page (view). If that removes one of the problem employees, type the same again in the console. You should only need to do that twice.

Be quick, it's nearly time for sleep here; I've been writing Rails all day and it's gone midnight here.

Steve.

Else I'll get back to you in the morning!

You aren't disturbing me at all, no. I want to help out.

I can't get to the bottom of the problem right now so I will pick this up in the morning.

Sorry I can't fix it now, but I must sleep.

Try Google for the error messages but bear in mind you have a nil problem, so something is pointing at nothing. Google can't help with that.

Sorry again, I'll get back to you tomorrow. It's gone midnight here.

Steve.

Right - I have your project and it is running as a server. I had to drop the database and start again so it is currently empty. I'll create an employee and see if I can render the show view as I think that was the issue you were having.

I can render the show view with my new employee; I don't get the error. I will add some time entries to see if that's the issue.

I think it is due to entries you have created perhaps before some validation went in. Also, I cant access /accounts - that's a blank view, which it shouldn't be.

What do you get if you type Account.count in the console?

That's a lot of accounts!! I've got one!!

Have you considered dropping the database and starting again from an empty one?

Also, if you visit http://localhost:3000/employees/XX Instead of XX, go to the console and find the employee id of Employee.first; put that number in place of XX.

Let's find where this error originates. It feels as thought there's something amiss with the model but I can't find it!

It should then output an employee - does it not?

Here's my output from one console cursor to the next - it outputs an employee after the hash:

irb(main):005:0> Employee.first Employee Load (0.5ms) SELECT accounts.* FROM accounts WHERE accounts.type IN ('Employee') ORDER BY accounts.id ASC LIMIT 1 => #Employee id: 1, type: "Employee", name: "Steve", email: nil, about: nil, created_at: "2016-03-09 11:25:30", updated_at: "2016-03-09 11:25:30", city: nil, zipcode: nil, state: nil, employees: nil, balance: nil irb(main):006:0>

What do you get with Employee.count in the console?

This is the same error as the start of the thread; I'm trying to focus on one point. The issue is that something to do with account is pulling up a nil value; in Java terms, you have a Null Pointer Exception. The error will appear in many places and look slightly different, but I believe it is the same problem across the piece.

Let's rewind a little ... we've identified one employee; he has id 1582. So, let's go right back to the start and try localhost/employees/1582 - does that still produce the nil error on the account.name object?

I've answered above - let's try to focus on one point. Looking at a view that fails to render is much easier than understanding the workings of a loop that iterates over thousands of records!

I have your github project - I'm fine for code!

Cool - so it is now rendering employees/show.html.erb. Can you replicate the error at the start of this thread?

I've checked your models and controllers and can't see any issue with them, apart from the one point I made last night.

If that problem has gone away, do your views render as you would expect?

Yeah - I'm unsurprised but the line should be there, so leave it for now.

Where did the account_entry info come from; was it seeded through Faker?

Before we start to look at all the entries to see if there's some bit of relationship-vital info missing, let's look at the one we know fails. Your SQL output is:

SQL (2.1ms) UPDATE account_entries SET state = 'submitted', updated_at = '2016-03-08 23:46:15' WHERE account_entries.id = 1 (2.6ms) ROLLBACK

That's where it fails. So, it is trying to set the state of account_entries.id = 1 to 'submitted'. Does that entry even exist? In console what does AccountEntry.count give you, and then what does AccountEntry.find(1) give you?

Sorry this is taking ages - this is a tricky little bug!!

Odd - I don't. Your code must be ahead of what's in GitHub. I'm struggling here!!

It must be down to overwriting the same state?

Hey, it's really not a problem - I'm still plugging away at it!

I think there's a direction that's allowed for the update_attributes to complete and allow the instance to be saved.

I don't get the error if I use console for

l = TimeEntry.last
l.update_attributes(state: 'submitted')

Do you? But I don't get the error with

TimeEntry.all.each { |t| t.update_attributes(state: "submitted") }

Are you still getting that? If so, show me the instance of TimeEntry that the SQL failed on. Let's compare those to mine to see what's different.

What's wrong with that?! I've been looking at this code for too long now - I can't see why that's a syntax error. Did you copy/paste it? It might have dragged some odd characters across if you did.

This seems to work now. You can't set the state to initial, which is correct; that's not a state - the code tries the change then issues the ROLLBACK command so it doesn't save. You can set the state to submitted. This code gives the COMMIT message:

TimeEntry.all.each { |t| t.update_attributes(state: "submitted") }

You can then change them all to approved with this:

TimeEntry.all.each { |t| t.update_attributes(state: "approved") }

You can then set them back to submitted too.

I get no errors.

In the console, right? And do you get a syntax error or a rails error?

OK - and is that the same error as before? Can you paste it in ...

I think that some of your TimeEntry instances aren't linked to an account_id. I'm trying to figure out how to test that theory - give me a minute.

Try this in the index.html.erb file after you've tried the first bits of code - it may be better - I can't test it as I can't create unlinked TimeEntry instances:

<% @time_entries.each do |te| %>
  <% if te.account_id.nil? %>
    <p>Time entry: <%= te.id %> has a nil account_id: <%= te.account_id %><p>
   <% end %>
<% end %>

This iterates over the same set of entries and outputs a string only if there's no account_id. I think! Try the other one first; see if there's some nil values, then substitute this code in. That will enable you to highlight the precise records that are causing a problem. We may be able to make it overwrite the nil entries make your database complete, assuming that's what the problem is. That's my theory at the moment!!

[EDIT - changed == nil to .nil? - nicer code]

Hi Jitendra,

Let me know how you got on or if I need to explain what I'm going on about!

Thanks,

Steve.

My internet is awful too - but that's the only downside of living in a rural area; the rest is great!

What happened when you added the new view, controller and route? Did you try all that?

OK - I asked you to add a route, a view and add code to a controller. What's 'still not working'? This is all new code.

It is 22:18 here now.

I think you should read through the code and understand what it is doing. It changed nothing that you have done already, so it would alter none of that.

Visit /time_entries and see what it says. I gave the view code two options. Use the first option initially and see what that says.

And then try the second option with the <p> styling. The first should fill the browser with numbers; the second should be more filtered.

It is entirely possible that neither option will help solve this, but they will narrow down the potential issues.

Anyway, I've been training all evening so I'm knackered; and the Mac is outta gas. Try the above; push the changes to git and paste your screens into here. I will pick this up in the morning. 22:38 here now - I'm hitting the sack; early morning swim & bike set to do tomorrow.

Read through the code; post the results.

I agree that is where the problem lies; that's what the code I wrote was trying to pull out - records where a TimeEntry has no account_id. Unfortunately, the screen shot you posted shows that my code didn't work the same on your machine as it did on mine. That's a pity. What have you run to produce a list of customers?

Yes, I figured this was the issue. Did you run the code that I suggested? That will highlight all cases where there's no account_id for a TimeEntry.

I don't understand; what happened when you opened the view for /time_entries?

Right, so that's the code for the View, what happens when you visit the view?

That's in the wrong place. Take the line outside the do block. Add it after the first end.

You can either add the get to: line at the root of the routes.rb file, or just move resources :time_entries outside of the block too; copy the line outide of the block:

resources :employees do
  resources :Time_entries
end      # after this
resources :time_entries # this copied
get 'time_entries', to: 'time_entries#index' # or this - same difference

Yes, because your route is hidden inside a doblock.

That's good and bad at the same time.

One last thing to confirm my suspicions ... revert the view code back to:

<% @time_entries.each do |te| %>
  <%= te.account_id %>
<% end %>

This will give you a load of numbers and it means that I'm wrong - every TimeEntry has an account_id. Try that view code first, but I think we need to start again.

I thought you'd have more than that ... in console, what does TimeEntry.count give you? 32?

Dammit. There's some swearing going on here. lol.

I'm sure there's something wrong with a relationship in that database, but it isn't the TimeEntry to account_id one.

I've run out of ideas. If it were me, I'd drop the database and start with a fresh build and new Faker data. If the issue still persists, we'll need to drag Jason or Hampton into this, after we tidy up exactly what we're asking! This must be one of the longest threads in Treehouse!!

I honestly would drop the database and rebuild it from scratch. That way, if there's some dodgy relationships across the models they'll be reset with new data. You'll lose everything that's in there at the moment, but it's fake data anyway, and it can be replaced. It isn't guaranteed to fix the issue, but at least you'll know that everything's fresh and there's no legacy records hanging around.

If it still fails, we'll need to look at the state_machine code as that could be causing it. Or, perhaps, download the project files from Treehouse and compare across to yours? There must be a difference somewhere!! That might be a starting point. We're not going to pin it down ourselves; although I don't think we were far away - but we weren't close enough, either! Sorry!

If I recall correctly, I got a little further than you did, but not very, before having my own issue that I couldn't fix. Some of the other Rails courses are similar, in that the explanations are perhaps a little too brief (or missing!) so many people drop the courses.

There are project files for it. You need to determine if the download is for the beginning of that section, or the end. It is usually the end, so you want to download the ones from the previous secion. In my, limited, experience setting up the project from these files can be a massive chore but you may find it more straightforward!

Treehouse are revamping their Rails courses for future release, which I'm looking forward to. There's also a couple of other sources of free Rails courses that I've found useful. I'm not saying they're better than Treehouse but they do provide a useful alternative view, in my opinion. I found that they supplemented what Treehouse had taught me.

I'm not on Pro subcription and I just downloaded the files from here.

Hi!

All good, thanks. You? And what can I help with?

I've never done that - however, I Googled, "build a rails application for an existing database" which comes up a lot of resources that will guide you through it.

This looks like a Gem that might be of assistance, too. But there's a lot of helpful links with that search.

I am now!

The database may not be using Ruby. I'd suggest asking your IT guys for access, if they're happy to grant it. If it is run using Rails the code is compiled when it is deployed leaving an application on the Web server. So, you can't access it directly, but you'd need access to the project in Staging or Development.