Question

I have a helper that checks if a user is signed in or not:

def signed_in?
  !current_user.nil?
end

I also have a helper that allows views and controllers to access the user object by checking the session:

def current_user
  @current_user ||= User.find_by_session(session[:user_id])
end

In one of my controllers, it works fine to pull up the user object

  def index
    @households = current_user.households.all
    @household = current_user.households.build

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html
      format.xml { render xml: @households }
    end
  end

The other controller, however, chokes on the current_user helper when it tries to call the households relation:

def home
  @households = current_user.households.all
  @household = current_user.households.build

  respond_to do |format|
    format.html
    format.xml { render xml: @households }
  end
end

The error:

undefined method `households' for nil:NilClass

I’m pretty stumped and could not find any posts related to this specific subject. I’m new to rails though. Am I asking this question in the wrong way?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Try to include module into your second controller.

For example, helper module looks like this:

module UserHelper
  def current_user
    @current_user ||= User.find_by_session(session[:user_id])
  end
end

Then include it into your controller:

class YourController < ApplicationController
  include UserHelper

  def home
    @households = current_user.households.all
    @household = current_user.households.build

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html
      format.xml { render xml: @households }
    end
  end
end