[ERROR] request#show (NoMethodError) "undefined method `strip' for nil:NilClass"

[garethrees]

A NoMethodError occurred in request#show:

undefined method `strip' for nil:NilClass
app/models/incoming_message.rb:260:in `specific_from_name?'


-------------------------------
Request:
-------------------------------

* URL : https://transparencia.be/nl_BE/request/demande_de_la_composition_de
* HTTP Method: GET
* Parameters : {"controller"=>"request", "action"=>"show", "url_title"=>"demande_de_la_composition_de", "locale"=>"nl_BE"}
* Timestamp : 2019-09-29 02:03:37 +0200
* Server : owl
* Rails root : /REDACTED/alaveteli-2019-09-02T14-26-17

-------------------------------
Backtrace:
-------------------------------

app/models/incoming_message.rb:260:in `specific_from_name?'
app/views/request/_incoming_correspondence.html.erb:4:in `_app_views_request__incoming_correspondence_html_erb__3894700621597723031_70052969946440'
app/views/request/_correspondence.html.erb:4:in `_app_views_request__correspondence_html_erb___2880736604165700046_70052975628640'
app/views/request/show.html.erb:70:in `block in _app_views_request_show_html_erb___4362884285142867874_70052978526160'
app/views/request/show.html.erb:68:in `_app_views_request_show_html_erb___4362884285142867874_70052978526160'
app/controllers/request_controller.rb:133:in `block (3 levels) in show'
app/controllers/request_controller.rb:132:in `block in show'
lib/alaveteli_localization.rb:43:in `with_locale'
app/controllers/request_controller.rb:83:in `show'
app/controllers/application_controller.rb:115:in `record_memory'
lib/strip_empty_sessions.rb:13:in `call'

[garethrees]

This only happens in an alternative locale:

r = InfoRequest.find_by url_title: 'demande_de_la_composition_de'

r.incoming_messages.last.specific_from_name?
# => true

AlaveteliLocalization.with_locale('nl_BE') { r.incoming_messages.last.specific_from_name? }
# => NoMethodError: undefined method `strip' for nil:NilClass

[garethrees]

Lets look at what's going on here:

# class IncomingMessage…
  def specific_from_name?
    !safe_mail_from.nil? && safe_mail_from.strip != info_request.public_body.name.strip
  end

We have a safe_mail_from:

m = r.incoming_messages.last
m.safe_mail_from
# => "Info Controleorgaan"

But we only have a PublicBody#name for the default locale…

m.info_request.public_body.name
# => "Organe de controle de l'information policière"

AlaveteliLocalization.with_locale('nl_BE') { m.info_request.public_body.name }
# => nil

…so we're trying to call strip on nil.

[garethrees]

I think this is actually a problem with underscore locales.

When we have a PublicBody with only the default translation, with non-underscore translations we get a fallback:

b.translated_locales
# => [:en]

b.name(:en)
# => "Foo"

b.name(:es)
# => "Foo"

With underscore locales, we don't get the fallback:

b.translated_locales
# => [:fr_BE]

b.name(:fr_BE)
# => "Organe de controle de l'information policière"

b.name(:nl_BE)
# => nil

[garethrees]

I think this is actually a problem with underscore locales.

Yep. In this case, :nl_BE is not falling back to :fr_BE:

I18n.fallbacks
# => { :fr_BE => [:fr_BE, :"fr-BE", :fr],
#      :nl_BE => [:nl_BE, :"fr-BE", :fr] }

AlaveteliLocalization.with_locale(:fr_BE) { Globalize.fallbacks }
# => [:fr_BE, :"fr-BE", :fr]
AlaveteliLocalization.with_locale(:nl_BE) { Globalize.fallbacks }
# => [:nl_BE, :"fr-BE", :fr]

[garethrees]

Manually including :fr_BE in the Globalize.fallbacks gives us what we want:

fallbacks = {
  fr_BE: [:fr_BE, :"fr-BE", :fr],
  nl_BE: [:nl_BE, :fr_BE, :"fr-BE", :fr]
}

Globalize.fallbacks = fallbacks
# => {:fr_BE=>[:fr_BE, :"fr-BE", :fr], :nl_BE=>[:nl_BE, :fr_BE, :"fr-BE", :fr]}

b.name(:fr_BE)
# => "Organe de controle de l'information policière"
b.name(:nl_BE)
# => "Organe de controle de l'information policière"

[garethrees]

Also seeing these in Rwanda (likely because it has an underscore locale as the default locale). Similar cause as #5890. More info in https://github.com/mysociety/alaveteli/wiki/Translations-and-underscore-locales.

[gbp]

Seeing this more on Rwanda since bumping to 0.40 and/or migrating to the new infra.

[gbp]

This has an issue again since 02ea505 but only visible for us at mySociety since upgrading Belgium and Rwanda to 0.40. Both these sites have underscored locales (fr_BE nl_BE and en_RW rw fr)

It turns out calling AlaveteliLocalization.set_locales in a config.before_configuration block doesn't persist correctly and is really needed in an config.after_initialize block.

Unfortunately we can't move to an after_initialize hook as this leads to an error when booting Rails 6.1 in development mode. This due Alaveteli not yet using the new Zeitwork autoloading feature and Rails attempts to render a deprecation warning which happens to includes an I18n translation so requires the default locale to be setup.