Question

In my Rails 3.1 app (with Ruby 1.9), I have a Deployer1 class that is in a worker subdirectory below the model directory

I am trying to load/instantiate this class dynamically with this code:

clazz = item.deployer_class  # deployer_class is the class name in a string
deployer_class = Object.const_get clazz
deployer = deployer_class.new

If I dont use namespaces, eg something global like this:

class Deployer1
end

Then it works fine (deployer_class=”Deployer1″) – it can load the class and create the object.

If I try and put it into a module to namespace it a bit, like this:

module Worker
    class Deployer1
    end
end

It doesnt work (deployer_class=”Worker::Deployer1″) – gives an error about missing constant, which I believe means it cannot find the class.

I can access the class generally in my Rails code in a static way (Worker::Deployer1.new) – so Rails is configured correctly to load this, perhaps I am loading it the wrong way…

EDIT:
So, as per Vlad’s answer, the solution I went for is:

deployer_class.constantize.new

Thanks
Chris

Answer 1

try using constantize instead:

module Wtf
  class Damm
  end
end
#=> nil
'Wtf::Damm'.constantize
#=> Wtf::Damm
Object.const_get 'Wtf::Damm'
#=> Wtf::Damm