Rails trying to call controller method from console

Question

I'm trying to create a cron job using the whenever gem to send birthday reminders to users and i want this cron to run everyday.

I have the whenever gem working, but my cron job keeps erroring out. I'm trying to call a controller method in the rails console to figure it out, but i keep getting errors and i'm unsure why.

I have this controller:

class BirthdayRemindersController < ApplicationController

    include ApplicationHelper

    # cron job that sends birthday reminders
    def send_birthday_email_reminders 
        users = User.all

        email_addresses = []

        users.each_with_index do |user, i|
            if user.user_details.birthday_reminders == true
                email_addresses[i] = get_primary_email(user)
            end
        end

        p email_addresses

        users.each do |user|
            if user.user_details.birthday == Date.today
                p "reminder sent"
                send_birthday_reminders(user, email_addresses)      
            end
        end
    end
end

And in the rails console i've tried both of these and they both error out.

Toms-Mac-mini:famnfo TomCaflisch$ rails c
Loading development environment (Rails 3.2.9)
irb(main):001:0> BirthdayRemindersController.send_birthday_email_reminders
NoMethodError: undefined method `send_birthday_email_reminders' for BirthdayRemindersController:Class
        from (irb):1
        from /Users/TomCaflisch/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p327@famnfo/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:47:in `start'
        from /Users/TomCaflisch/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p327@famnfo/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:8:in `start'
        from /Users/TomCaflisch/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p327@famnfo/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails/commands.rb:41:in `<top (required)>'
        from script/rails:6:in `require'
        from script/rails:6:in `<main>'
irb(main):002:0> BirthdayReminders.send_birthday_email_reminders
NameError: uninitialized constant BirthdayReminders
        from (irb):2
        from /Users/TomCaflisch/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p327@famnfo/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:47:in `start'
        from /Users/TomCaflisch/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p327@famnfo/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:8:in `start'
        from /Users/TomCaflisch/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p327@famnfo/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails/commands.rb:41:in `<top (required)>'
        from script/rails:6:in `require'
        from script/rails:6:in `<main>'
irb(main):003:0>

What am i missing? I have no routes defined for this controller because i don't want anyone to be able to hit it via a web brows

It may help: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/151030/how-do-i-call-controller-view-methods-from-the-console-in-rails/1161163#1161163 — Baldrick, Jan 05 '13 at 15:09
I know how to call the controller from the console as i'm doing that. I was just getting an error when calling a specific method and wasn't sure why. — Catfish, Jan 05 '13 at 15:13
Yves Senn pointed it: you're calling the method as if it was a class method (declared with `self`), but it is an instance method. You can try to call it like that `BirthdayRemindersController.new.send_birthday_email_reminders` , but it will certainly generates an error because the Controller is missing context. — Baldrick, Jan 05 '13 at 15:18

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 05 '13 at 14:03

5

The methods on your controller are instance methods, not class methods. Class methods are defined with self.. It is hard to trigger a controller action from the console because you miss the whole context. You don't have a session, no request, no response. All these things make it hard to work with code inside controller actions. If you need to trigger your code from outside (console, rack-task, other code). You should extract the code into it's own class.

answered Jan 05 '13 at 14:03

Yves Senn

2,006
16
13

Can you provide an example? What folder would this go into? Do i just not extend the ApplicationController? – Catfish Jan 05 '13 at 14:15
It was clear from first reading your question that all i needed to do was add `self.` to the method. I figured it out now after reading some things on the internet. – Catfish Jan 05 '13 at 15:33

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '15 at 08:24

0

Use 'debugger' gem.
Add a debugger in you controller method and then play with it in your console once you run the application in debugger mode using -> "rails s --debugger"

answered Feb 06 '15 at 08:24

Pushp Raj Saurabh

1,174
12
16

Rails trying to call controller method from console

2 Answers2