Rails handling .Erb with Nils

Question

Hi,

<%= image_tag this.profile.expiring_url(180)  %>

keeps giving me grief when profile is nil... what can i do?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Always check if a variable is nil before using it in a view.

<% image_tag this.profile.expiring_url(180) unless this.profile.nil? %>

I'm sure there's a more elegant solution to the problem, but that should get you started.

Answer 2

First you'd need to decide what you want to do when there is no profile. Do you want to display a default image? No image at all?

Assuming you wanted to display a default image, you could add a method to your helper:

def expiration_url_for( profile )
  (profile && profile.expiring_url(180)) || default_url
end

and then call that helper method in your view:

<%=image_tag expiration_url_for( this.profile )%>

Answer 3

This should work, too

<%= image_tag(this.profile.expiring_url(180)) rescue "no image!" %>