Sinatra/CouchDB error? - ruby

Question

I'm working on my first Sinatra/CouchDB project and I'm getting an error I can't explain.
Here's my rackup (config.ru) file:
require 'rubygems'
require 'couchrest'
require 'patina'
set :environment, :development
set :root, File.dirname(__FILE__)
set :run, false
FileUtils.mkdir_p 'log' unless File.exists?('log')
log = File.new("log/sinatra.log", "a")
$stdout.reopen(log)
$stderr.reopen(log)
set :db, CouchRest.database!("http://127.0.0.1:5984/test")
run Sinatra::Application
And here's the app file (patina.rb):
require 'rubygems'
require 'sinatra'
require 'couchrest'
require 'haml'
class Article < CouchRest::ExtendedDocument
use_database settings.db
property :title
timestamps!
view_by :title
end
get '/' do
#db = settings.db
haml :index
end
Without the class definition in patina.rb, the route returns a page that displays the #db property as I was expecting. However, when I add the class definition to patina.rb I get "Ruby (Rack) application could not be started" error message.
Obviously this has something to do with my class definition, but I can't figure out what the problem is and the error message doesn't seem that helpful to me.
Also, I'd actually prefer to have the class definition in a separate file (Article.rb), but I can't figure out how to do that in the context of my Sinatra app.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
EDIT:
See my answer below.

Answer 1

After a lot of googling, I discovered that the 1.4 series of json.gem are known to cause a lot of problems. I uninstalled all the json gems I had and installed json-1.2.4.gem instead. I have everything working correctly now. Here's the setup I'm using:
config.ru (Rackup file):
require 'application'
set :environment, :production
set :root, File.dirname(__FILE__)
set :run, false
FileUtils.mkmdir_p 'log' unless File.exists?('log')
log = File.new('log/sinatra.log', 'a+')
$stdout.reopen(log)
$stderr.reopen(log)
run Sinatra::Application
environment.rb:
require 'rubygems'
require 'couchrest'
require 'haml'
require 'ostruct'
require 'sinatra' unless defined?(Sinatra)
configure do
SiteConfig = OpenStruct.new(
:title => 'Application Title',
:author => 'Your Name',
:url_base => 'Your URL',
:url_base_db => 'Your CouchDB Server',
:db_name => "Your DB Name"
)
# load models
$LOAD_PATH.unshift("#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/lib")
Dir.glob("#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/lib/*.rb") { |lib| require File.basename(lib, '.*') }
end
lib/contact.rb (Model example, models auto-loaded in environment.rb):
class Contact < CouchRest::ExtendedDocument
include CouchRest::Validation
use_database CouchRest.database!((SiteConfig.url_base_db || '') + SiteConfig.db_name)
property :name
timestamps!
view_by :name
end
application.rb:
require 'rubygems'
require 'sinatra'
require 'environment'
configure do
set :views, "./views"
end
error do
e = request.env['sinatra.error']
Kernel.puts e.backtrace.join("\n")
'Application error'
end
helpers do
end
get '/new/?' do
haml :new
end
post '/save/?' do
#contact_name = params[:contact_name]
#contact = Contact.new
#contact.name = #contact_name
#contact.save
haml :save
end
get '/' do
haml :index
end
Hope this helps someone in the future!

Answer 2

try requiring 'patina' after setting :db. I think the class body of Article is executing the use_database method before the setting exists.
you should be able to put Article in article.rb (ruby naming convention is UpperCamel for classes, but under_scores for the files in which classes are defined) and then require 'article' in patina.rb.
thats the only thing that stood out for me, so let me know if that works.