Type Error running feature in Rail's Cucumber

Question

I'm trying to run Cucumber for my Rails application and keep getting this error:

> superclass mismatch for class Point (TypeError)

There's a huge stack trace from this error, but it does not point to anything specific except a missing requirement. Here's the trace:

---

rake features (in /Users/rob/blue/blue_web) /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby -I "/Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/lib:lib" "/Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/bin/cucumber" --color --tags ~@wip --strict --format pretty --drb features/manage_logins.feature WARNING: No DRb server is running. Running features locally: superclass mismatch for class Point (TypeError) /Users/rob/blue/blue_web/app/models/point.rb:1 /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in gem_original_require' /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in polyglot_original_require' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/polyglot-0.2.9/lib/polyglot.rb:70:in require' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:158:in require' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:265:in require_or_load' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:224:in depend_on' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:136:in require_dependency' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:414:in load_application_classes' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:413:in each' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:413:in load_application_classes' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:411:in each' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:411:in load_application_classes' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:197:in process' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:113:in send' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:113:in run' /Users/rob/blue/blue_web/config/environment.rb:16 /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in gem_original_require' /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in polyglot_original_require' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/polyglot-0.2.9/lib/polyglot.rb:70:in require' ./features/support/env.rb:7 /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/spork-0.7.2/lib/spork.rb:14:in prefork' ./features/support/env.rb:4 /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in gem_original_require' /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in polyglot_original_require' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/polyglot-0.2.9/lib/polyglot.rb:70:in require' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/bin/../lib/cucumber/rb_support/rb_language.rb:107:in load_code_file' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/bin/../lib/cucumber/rb_support/rb_language.rb:48:in step_definitions_for' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/bin/../lib/cucumber/step_mother.rb:90:in load_code_file' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/bin/../lib/cucumber/step_mother.rb:82:in load_code_files' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/bin/../lib/cucumber/step_mother.rb:81:in each' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/bin/../lib/cucumber/step_mother.rb:81:in load_code_files' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/bin/../lib/cucumber/cli/main.rb:46:in execute!' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/bin/../lib/cucumber/cli/main.rb:24:in execute' /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.3.102/bin/cucumber:9 rake aborted! Command failed with status (1): [/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/...]

Answer 1

I found the answer to this problem, it was a class name conflict with the mySQL geoSpatial plug-in and my schema.

I had a class named Point and everything was happy. Then I added (the very cool) geoSpatial plug-in to use mySQL's geo index features. This plug-in also defines a Point class.

The conflict was causing Cucumber to fail.

If you are seeing this error in your own application, look for duplicates!