Rails program stops executing due to error

When a rails ruby script stops executing, rails will serve up a web page with details on what caused the error.

How To Fix

Step 1. Decipher the error message

First check to see if we have a specific guide on troubleshooting common errors:

Available Guides:

• Routing Error: No route matches
• Routing Error: uninitialized constant

Guides that still need to be written:

• Unknown action
• ActionController::UnknownFormat: missing a template
• NoMethodError: undefined method `<method_name>' for nil:NilClass
• NameError: uninitialized constant
• NameError: undefined local variable or method
• ActiveRecord::PendingMigrationError

If your error isn't listed above, proceed to the next step.

Step 2. Identify where the error is occurring

We still need to write content for troubleshooting rails errors (that are not listed above), but until that is available, try using the Ruby troubleshooting guide.