Why isn't a variable recognised within my _show.html file? - html

Question

So I have a calendar controller and a view called _show.html.erb (it's a partial which is loaded into a bigger view). I'm trying to use an attribute 'starts_at' which belongs to an 'event' model object, but my html highlights it saying "cannot find starts_at".
If I try and load my main page it gives the error:
NoMethodError in Pages#main
undefined method `each' for nil:NilClass
Here is the calendar controller with my show method:
class CalendarsController < ApplicationController
def new
#calendar = Calendar.new(calendar_params)
end
def create
#calendar = Calendar.new(calendar_params)
end
private
def calendar_params
params.require(:customer_id)
end
def show
#calendar = current_customer.calendar
#events = #calendar.events
end
end
My events controller:
class EventsController < ApplicationController
before_filter :logged_in?
def new
#event = Event.new
#calendar = current_customer.calendar
end
def create
#calendar = current_customer.calendar
#event = #calendar.events.build(event_params)
if #event.save
redirect_to '/main' #'/main/#{#calendar.id}'
else
redirect_to '/compose'
end
end
Here is the _show.html.erb snippet:
<td id = "mon900" class ="freeslot" width=75 valign=top>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'> </p>
<% #events.each do |e|%>
<p><%= e.starts_at %></p> <!-- It wont pick up starts_at-->
<% end %>
</td>
Here is the code where I am rendering this partial. It is being rendered in main.html.erb which belongs to my Pages controller:
<%= render partial: '/calendars/show', locals: {} %>
Pages controller:
class PagesController < ApplicationController
#before_action :require_customer, only: [:main]
def home
end
def main
end
end
Just for clarity, here are my calendar and event models:
class Calendar < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :customer
has_many :events
end
class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :calendar
end
The :starts_at attribute of an event is of datetime type. When I was learning how to do ruby on rails (admittedly not long ago) I was told this sort of ruby injection would work. What is the problem here? Thanks!

Answer 1

You'll need some validation that the user exists so something like this should work:
#controllers/pages
def main
#events = current_user ? current_user.calendar.events : []
end
Clarification; this is the above ternary operation written out:
if current_user
#events = current_user.calendar.events
else
#events = [] # an empty array, which will address "undefined method `each' for nil:NilClass"
end
This way if there is no user logged in it will return an empty array of "events". You could just as easily replace the array with a scope of actual events, such as:
#events = current_user ? current_user.calendar.events : Event.all