Twitter gem & Rails 3 - TypeError: can't convert Pathname into String

Question

I'm trying to use the twitter gem in a rails 3 app but keep getting the following error:

TypeError: can't convert Pathname into String

Here's the code I'm trying to run:

class Tweet < ActiveRecord::Base
  def self.test_tweet
    Twitter.user_timeline("sferik").first.text
  end
end

Here's the full error message:

TypeError: can't convert Pathname into String

from /home/shane/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:658:in `initialize'
from /home/shane/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:658:in `new'
from /home/shane/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:658:in `connect'
from /home/shane/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:637:in `do_start'
from /home/shane/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:626:in `start'
from /home/shane/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1168:in `request'
from /home/shane/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:888:in `get'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/faraday-0.7.6/lib/faraday/adapter/net_http.rb:59:in `call'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/faraday-0.7.6/lib/faraday/response.rb:8:in `call'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/faraday-0.7.6/lib/faraday/response.rb:8:in `call'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/faraday-0.7.6/lib/faraday/response.rb:8:in `call'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/faraday-0.7.6/lib/faraday/request/url_encoded.rb:14:in `call'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/faraday-0.7.6/lib/faraday/request/multipart.rb:13:in `call'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/twitter-2.1.1/lib/twitter/request/multipart_with_file.rb:17:in `call'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/twitter-2.1.1/lib/twitter/request/phoenix.rb:13:in `call'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/faraday-0.7.6/lib/faraday/connection.rb:210:in `run_request'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/twitter-2.1.1/lib/twitter/request.rb:23:in `request'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/twitter-2.1.1/lib/twitter/request.rb:11:in `get'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/twitter-2.1.1/lib/twitter/client/timelines.rb:208:in `user_timeline'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/twitter-2.1.1/lib/twitter.rb:17:in `method_missing'
from /home/shane/projects/bv_data/app/models/tweet.rb:5:in `test_tweet'
from (irb):1
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/railties-3.1.2/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:45:in `start'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/railties-3.1.2/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:8:in `start'
from /home/shane/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@rails312/gems/railties-3.1.2/lib/rails/commands.rb:40:in `<top (required)>'
from script/rails:6:in `require'
from script/rails:6:in `<main>'

I get this error even when running the same code from the console:

Twitter.user_timeline("sferik").first.text

I created a blank test app with the same version of rails and the twitter gem and it runs no problem so I'm not sure what the problem is.

Answer 1

As I had this working before in the app I went back through my commits until I could find a point were it was working and what I did to break it.

So in case anyone happens to be in the same position what I had added was a fix_ssl.rb file in config/initializers which was to address a previous SSL connection issue. Removing this file allowed the Twitter gem to work correctly again.

config/initializers/fix_ssl.rb

require 'open-uri'
require 'net/https'

module Net
   class HTTP
    alias_method :original_use_ssl=, :use_ssl=

    def use_ssl=(flag)
      self.ca_file = Rails.root.join('lib/ca-bundle.crt')
      self.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_PEER
      self.original_use_ssl = flag
    end
  end

end