NameError when using act_as_ferret - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am getting this error when I am using
acts_as_ferret :fields =>[:competitor], :remote => true
NameError in PartController#index
uninitialized constant PartController::Competitor
My Model
class Competitor < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_presence_of :fee_earner_id, :notes
belongs_to :fee_earner
belongs_to :country
belongs_to :state
belongs_to :user
acts_as_ferret :fields =>[:competitor], :remote => true
end
My controller
class PartController < ApplicationController
def index
#proscribeds = Competitor.paginate(:all,
:order => sort ,
:page => params[:page],
:per_page => 70 )
end
end
Its working fine in localhost but when I deploy it in the server than I get this error.
act_as_ferret is working good with other models. I don't know why this is not working with only Competitor model.

Answer 1

These might seem like simplistic suggestions, but here's what comes to mind:
Do you have the same OS on localhost and the server? I've been burned by little discrepancies like the differences between how Unix and Windows handle mixed case pathnames.
Have the most updated versions of all your files been moved? Can you do a diff and ensure that there isn't a missing config file or environment variable or something?
I know those suggestions aren't really Rail/Ruby-specific, but I've found that little configuration problems tend to give me more headaches than actual code errors do.
Good luck!

Answer 2

This could be a problem with the bin/ferret_server file on the remote drb server you are running. What it is complaining about is that it knows nothing about the PartController::Competitor model. This is because the ferret-server does not eager load all the Rails classes like Rails does by default.
I had a similar issue and the solution was to also require the Rails config/environment file as well as the Rails config/application file.
Something like this:
begin
ENV['FERRET_USE_LOCAL_INDEX'] = 'true'
if env = $ferret_server_options['environment']
ENV['RAILS_ENV'] = env
end
# determine RAILS_ROOT unless already set
root = File.expand_path(determine_rails_root)
begin
require File.join(root, 'config', 'application')
# Also require environment to eager load Rails classes
require File.join(root, 'config', 'environment')
rescue
puts "Error booting your rails app at #{root}: #{$!}\n#{$!.backtrace.join("\n")}"
raise $!
end
puts "Rails.root: #{Rails.root}"
puts "Rails.env: #{Rails.env}"
require 'acts_as_ferret/server/server'
ActsAsFerret::Server::Server.new.send($ferret_server_action)
rescue Exception => e
$stderr.puts(e.message)
$stderr.puts(e.backtrace.join("\n")) if $ferret_server_options['debug']
exit(1)
end