Why Does This Return “cannot convert nil to string” [closed]

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Closed 8 years ago.

I am using almost the exact same setup of Jeff Morgan's book "Cucumber & Cheese" and I have a page object with like this

class NewPublicationPage
  include PageObject
  include RSpec::Matchers
  ... 
  def submit_basic_message_with_tag
    @tag = Time.now.to_i
    ...
    self.tag_entry = @tag
    # the tag ends up getting added later on down the road to a div container.
    ...
  end

  def verify_last_tag
    done_loading
    # tag_list is a div container that should contain the tag.
    tag_list.should include @tag
  end
end

When I run the following commands in Cucumber steps, each command with its own step, it fails saying cannot convert nil to string. I know it has to do with the instance variable @tag, but I'm not sure why.

When /^I submit a basic message with tags$/ do
  on_page(NewPublicationPage).submit_basic_message_with_tag
end

Then /^I should see the tag under Publish History$/ do
    visit_page(PublishHistoryPage) # goes to page with div container that holds tags
    on_page(NewPublicationPage).verify_last_tag #this creates the error
end

Answer 1

But anyway, you just need to set the @tag before trying to read it. So for instance you could set it at the beginning of the verify_last_tag method, or if you need it to be the same in both tests, you can take a look at that post I'm no expert with cucumber so I can't really help you.