From: Charles Steinman <acharlieblue@...>
Date: 2005-06-21T15:15:35+09:00
Subject: Re: Confusing code behavior in Rails


szymon.rozga wrote:
> I have a class in /project_dir/lib called Failure. Failure has one
> instance variable, t. But, if you call f.<anything> ( f being of type
> Failure ), I override method_missing and create a method called
> <anything> which returns 10 (it's a simplification of a much bigger
> problem).
>
> It works flawlessly, but only once. Under the trend action of my
> controller, I instantiate a new instance of Failure. The first time I
> load the action and try to display some variable on the view,
> everything works. However, if I reload the page, all the instance
> variables created on the fly return Nil. And they don't function
> properly until I restart Webrick. And then it does the only once thing
> again.

It sounds like this is what's happening: You're creating these instance
variables and accessor methods in method_missing the first time
through. Then, after the page is done loading, Rails destroys its
world. When you load the page the second time, it re-creates
everything, but the accessor methods are already defined, so it never
falls through to method_missing and you're just accessing empty
instance variables.