Metaprogramming oddness - works in console but fails in spec

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi folks

Let's say i have these methods, and i want to abstract them into a bit of metaprogramming, for dryness' sake:

  def water_score_for(year)     self.send("ratings.water.#{year}.collect(&:score).sum")   end

  def possible_water_score_for(year)     self.ratings.water.#{year}.size * 2   end

  def sanitation_score_for(year)     self.send("ratings.sanitation.#{year}.collect(&:score).sum")   end

  def possible_sanitation_score_for(year)     self.ratings.sanitation.#{year}.size * 2   end

I'm trying to do this via 'define_method': here's my code:

  #defined elsewhere   #PolicyIndicator::SECTORS = ["water", "sanitation"]

  PolicyIndicator::SECTORS.each do |sector|     self.send(:define_method, "#{sector}_score_for".to_sym) do |year|       self.send("ratings").send("#{sector}").send("for_#{year}").collect(&:score).sum     end

    self.send(:define_method, "possible_#{sector}_score_for".to_sym) do

year>

      self.send("ratings").send("#{sector}").send("for_#{year}").size * 2     end   end Now, this works fine in the console:

country = Country.find(:first)

=> #<Country id: 1, region_id: 1, name: "Nigeria", created_at: "2009-04-21 08:39:09", updated_at: "2009-04-22 16:24:29", sanitation_coverage: 62.0, water_coverage: 45.0, hdi: 0.405497, population_millions: 46.0, child_mortality: 52.0, gdp: 13724.8>

country.water_score_for(2009)

=> 9

But when i run a spec that makes a country, makes some ratings, associates them with the country and call the method on it, i get this error back:

undefined method `for_2009' for #<Array:0xb70cd19c> (__DELEGATION__):2:in `__send__' (__DELEGATION__):2:in `with_scope' (__DELEGATION__):2:in `__send__' (__DELEGATION__):2:in `with_scope' /home/max/work/washwatch_container/washwatch/app/models/country.rb:11:in `send'

the line (country.rb:11) in question is this:   self.send("ratings").send("#{sector}").send("for_#{year}").collect(&:score).sum

It seems to be falling over on the named scopes on the Rating class, so i guess maybe i'm not using 'send' int he optimal way. However, it seems to work perfectly in the console - checking my log file, the correct, optimised sql query is being called.

Can anyone help? thanks max