Rails 3.2 undefined method `key?' for nil:NilClass

Question

For some reason I started to get this error after switching to Rails 3.2. I guess it has something to do with acl9 plugin, which I tried reinstalling, but nothing changed.

I moved the plugins to lib/plugins and added initializer to config/initializers but again, same error.

I looked for solution at acl9 repo on Github, but could not find anything there. Maybe it is not acl9 after all.

I have paperclip, acl9, authlogic installed.

NoMethodError (undefined method `key?' for nil:NilClass):
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/hide_actions.rb:36:in `visible_action?'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/hide_actions.rb:18:in `method_for_action'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/implicit_render.rb:14:in `method_for_action'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/compatibility.rb:61:in `method_for_action'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:115:in `process'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/abstract_controller/rendering.rb:45:in `process'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:203:in `dispatch'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/rack_delegation.rb:14:in `dispatch'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:246:in `block in action'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:66:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:66:in `dispatch'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:30:in `call'
journey (1.0.3) lib/journey/router.rb:68:in `block in call'
journey (1.0.3) lib/journey/router.rb:56:in `each'
journey (1.0.3) lib/journey/router.rb:56:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:589:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/best_standards_support.rb:17:in `call'
rack (1.4.1) lib/rack/etag.rb:23:in `call'
rack (1.4.1) lib/rack/conditionalget.rb:25:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/head.rb:14:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/params_parser.rb:21:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/flash.rb:242:in `call'
rack (1.4.1) lib/rack/session/abstract/id.rb:205:in `context'
rack (1.4.1) lib/rack/session/abstract/id.rb:200:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/cookies.rb:338:in `call'
activerecord (3.2.1) lib/active_record/query_cache.rb:64:in `call'
activerecord (3.2.1) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:443:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:28:in `block in call'
activesupport (3.2.1) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:405:in `_run__3140920687338355213__call__3168118505970967148__callbacks'
activesupport (3.2.1) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:405:in `__run_callback'
activesupport (3.2.1) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:385:in `_run_call_callbacks'
activesupport (3.2.1) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:81:in `run_callbacks'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:27:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/reloader.rb:65:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/remote_ip.rb:31:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/debug_exceptions.rb:16:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/show_exceptions.rb:56:in `call'
railties (3.2.1) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:26:in `call_app'
railties (3.2.1) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:16:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/request_id.rb:22:in `call'
rack (1.4.1) lib/rack/methodoverride.rb:21:in `call'
rack (1.4.1) lib/rack/runtime.rb:17:in `call'
activesupport (3.2.1) lib/active_support/cache/strategy/local_cache.rb:72:in `call'
rack (1.4.1) lib/rack/lock.rb:15:in `call'
actionpack (3.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/static.rb:53:in `call'
railties (3.2.1) lib/rails/engine.rb:479:in `call'
railties (3.2.1) lib/rails/application.rb:220:in `call'
rack (1.4.1) lib/rack/content_length.rb:14:in `call'
railties (3.2.1) lib/rails/rack/log_tailer.rb:14:in `call'
rack (1.4.1) lib/rack/handler/webrick.rb:59:in `service'
/Users/project/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p0/lib/ruby/1.9.1/webrick/httpserver.rb:138:in `service'
/Users/project/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p0/lib/ruby/1.9.1/webrick/httpserver.rb:94:in `run'
/Users/project/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p0/lib/ruby/1.9.1/webrick/server.rb:191:in `block in start_thread'

EDIT (SOLVED): It took quite a while to figure out and I am still not quite sure what happened. I think it has to do with acl9's support for Rails 3.1+ But in the end I took the acl9 code from github and everything suddenly started working.

Answer 1

I am a newbie to RoR and got the same error while going through RoR "Getting started guide".

This may sound silly, but others might make the same mistake as I am, so posting what I noticed in RoR from newbie's eyes,

validates :name,  : presence => true

Note ": presence", it should be ":presence". Now the Rail throws a Syntax error

 C:/blog/app/models/post.rb:4: syntax error, unexpected ':', expecting keyword_end
 validates :name,  : presence => true

But if you "Refresh" Your browser, it hides the syntax error, instead gives

undefined method `key?' for nil:NilClass

It seems Rails caching is the culprit. :)

Answer 2

This may not be your issue as it sounds like you already had working code to begin with, but for future reference for others, I ran into the same error due to a simple typo inside my model code, like so:

class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
    validates :content, :length => { maximum => 10 }
end

which should have been:

class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
    validates :content, :length => { :maximum => 10 }
end

Note the "maximum" vs. ":maximum" -- this resulted in the exact nil error above, and went away when I fixed that typo.