Heroku “We're sorry, but something went wrong”

Question

Firstly, I'm quite a newbie in rails/heroku, so forgive the newbiness in advance!

I did the Rails tutorial (http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html) and generated a blog-like "post" app, pushed it into github, and then pushed into heroku.

My app works fine locally, but when I try to run it online, it has the "We're sorry, but something went wrong" in red font error.

Here is the heroku logs:

2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]: Started GET "/posts/new" for 24.246.75.91 at 2012-06-17 18:20:21 +0000
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]: Processing by PostsController#new as HTML
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:   Rendered posts/_form.html.erb (19.4ms)
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:   Rendered posts/new.html.erb within layouts/application (32.8ms)
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]: Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 39ms
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]: 
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:     13: 
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]: ActionView::Template::Error (undefined method `name' for #<Post:0x000000043b8e00>):
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:     14:   <div class="field">
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:     15:     <%= f.label :name %><br />
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:     18:   <div class="field">
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:     17:   </div>
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:     16:     <%= f.text_field :name %>
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:     19:     <%= f.label :title %><br />
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:   app/views/posts/_form.html.erb:16:in `block in _app_views_posts__form_html_erb___4393344465537738631_33651200'
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:   app/views/posts/_form.html.erb:1:in `_app_views_posts__form_html_erb___4393344465537738631_33651200'
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:   app/views/posts/new.html.erb:3:in `_app_views_posts_new_html_erb___263954971377171473_37473500'
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]:   app/controllers/posts_controller.rb:35:in `new'
2012-06-17T18:20:21+00:00 app[web.1]: 

In a nutshell, f.name is an object representing an entry in the database (so is most of the information for f)

The "undefined method `name'" error seems strange to me, as it works perfectly locally.

My hypothesis is that the database is not linked properly between heroku and my app. However, I don't know how I can solve/check this problem.

My app is using the 'shared database' by default right now.

Any hints on what check? Something I missed?

EDIT 1: migrating database. The table 'posts' seems to be already 'detected'. Here is a trace:

   Running rake db:migrate --trace attached to terminal... up, run.1
DEPRECATION WARNING: You have Rails 2.3-style plugins in vendor/plugins! Support for these plugins will be removed in Rails 4.0. Move them out and bundle them in your Gemfile, or fold them in to your app as lib/myplugin/* and config/initializers/myplugin.rb. See the release notes for more on this: http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2012/01/04/rails-3-2-0-rc2-has-been-released. (called from <top (required)> at /app/Rakefile:7)
DEPRECATION WARNING: You have Rails 2.3-style plugins in vendor/plugins! Support for these plugins will be removed in Rails 4.0. Move them out and bundle them in your Gemfile, or fold them in to your app as lib/myplugin/* and config/initializers/myplugin.rb. See the release notes for more on this: http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2012/01/04/rails-3-2-0-rc2-has-been-released. (called from <top (required)> at /app/Rakefile:7)
** Invoke db:migrate (first_time)
** Invoke environment (first_time)
** Execute environment
** Invoke db:load_config (first_time)
** Invoke rails_env (first_time)
** Execute rails_env
** Execute db:load_config
** Execute db:migrate
Migrating to CreatePosts (20120418005214)
==  CreatePosts: migrating ====================================================
-- create_table(:posts)
rake aborted!
An error has occurred, this and all later migrations canceled:

PG::Error: ERROR:  relation "posts" already exists
: CREATE TABLE "posts" ("id" serial primary key, "name" character varying(255), "title" character varying(255), "content" text, "created_at" timestamp NOT NULL, "updated_at" timestamp NOT NULL) 
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:640:in `async_exec'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:640:in `block in execute'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract_adapter.rb:280:in `block in log'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-3.2.1/lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:20:in `instrument'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract_adapter.rb:275:in `log'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:639:in `execute'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/schema_statements.rb:170:in `create_table'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:450:in `block in method_missing'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:424:in `block in say_with_time'
/app/vendor/ruby-1.9.3-p0/lib/ruby/1.9.1/benchmark.rb:280:in `measure'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:424:in `say_with_time'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:444:in `method_missing'
/app/db/migrate/20120418005214_create_posts.rb:3:in `change'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:393:in `block (2 levels) in migrate'
/app/vendor/ruby-1.9.3-p0/lib/ruby/1.9.1/benchmark.rb:280:in `measure'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:393:in `block in migrate'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:118:in `with_connection'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:377:in `migrate'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:512:in `migrate'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:704:in `block (2 levels) in migrate'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:759:in `call'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:759:in `block in ddl_transaction'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/database_statements.rb:190:in `transaction'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:208:in `transaction'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:759:in `ddl_transaction'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:703:in `block in migrate'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:684:in `each'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:684:in `migrate'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:554:in `up'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/migration.rb:535:in `migrate'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.1/lib/active_record/railties/databases.rake:153:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:205:in `call'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:205:in `block in execute'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:200:in `each'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:200:in `execute'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:158:in `block in invoke_with_call_chain'
/app/vendor/ruby-1.9.3-p0/lib/ruby/1.9.1/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:151:in `invoke_with_call_chain'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/task.rb:144:in `invoke'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:116:in `invoke_task'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:94:in `block (2 levels) in top_level'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:94:in `each'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:94:in `block in top_level'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:133:in `standard_exception_handling'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:88:in `top_level'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:66:in `block in run'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:133:in `standard_exception_handling'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/lib/rake/application.rb:63:in `run'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.9.2.2/bin/rake:33:in `<top (required)>'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/bin/rake:19:in `load'
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/bin/rake:19:in `<main>'
Tasks: TOP => db:migrate

EDIT 2: Tried dropping te database. Strange error:

19:06:34[~/ED3/ed3/]>heroku run rake db:drop
Running rake db:drop attached to terminal... up, run.1
DEPRECATION WARNING: You have Rails 2.3-style plugins in vendor/plugins! Support for these plugins will be removed in Rails 4.0. Move them out and bundle them in your Gemfile, or fold them in to your app as lib/myplugin/* and config/initializers/myplugin.rb. See the release notes for more on this: http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2012/01/04/rails-3-2-0-rc2-has-been-released. (called from <top (required)> at /app/Rakefile:7)
DEPRECATION WARNING: You have Rails 2.3-style plugins in vendor/plugins! Support for these plugins will be removed in Rails 4.0. Move them out and bundle them in your Gemfile, or fold them in to your app as lib/myplugin/* and config/initializers/myplugin.rb. See the release notes for more on this: http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2012/01/04/rails-3-2-0-rc2-has-been-released. (called from <top (required)> at /app/Rakefile:7)
Couldn't drop mtstktqkyx : #<ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid: PG::Error: ERROR:  must be owner of database mtstktqkyx
: DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS "mtstktqkyx">

EDIT 3: CreatePosts migration (from db/migrate/##..##_create_posts.rb)

class CreatePosts < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :posts do |t|
      t.string :name
      t.string :title
      t.text :content

      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

Answer 1

Did you migrate your database?

Try running:

heroku run rake db:migrate 

from your project's directory.

Answer 2

Turns out my database in heroku was being referenced wrongly. This is what I did:

1. rake db:drop - this killed both test and development tables
2. re-created the two databases in posgresql I have it local as well
3. rake db:migrate - so at this point localhost is working again after 1.
4. heroku addons - shared-database should be shown
5. heroku pg:reset SHARED_DATABASE - can't do db:reset in heroku due to permission issues
6. heroku run rake db:migrate - re-migrate the production db

Although only steps 5 and 6 were the only ones addressing my primary issue directly.

Thanks all!!!

Answer 3

It looks like you have more than one migration for creating the post model. I'd look at the migrations first.

Answer 4

I had this problem with my rails app running on Heroku.

I tried heroku run rake db:migrate but it still didn't work.

Then I ran heroku run rails db:schema:load and it worked.

Tip: the commands that you use to get your app to run locally may be useful when trying to get your app to work on Heroku.