'cleanup_old_experiments' error when running from non-web (eg. console)

[jmccaffrey]

The steps in the instructions in the "outside-of-a-web-session" are not working

I cloned the example project
https://github.com/splitrb/split-rails-example
I have redis running and the sample page and dashboard work as expected.
Hopping into a rails console for that project and following the steps from
#outside-of-a-web-session
it fails on
trial.choose!
with error
NoMethodError (undefined method `cleanup_old_experiments!' for nil:NilClass)
Looking at the code, it assumes that a Split::User is loaded.

It makes sense that some type of context and unique ID would need to be passed along when creating the new Trial instance, but just following the steps listed does not flow as expected. (unless there is something about an adapter that is required to make it work)

To reproduce:
git clone https://github.com/splitrb/split-rails-example
cd split-rails-example
bundle
(start redis if needed)
rails c

#- create a new experiment
experiment = Split::ExperimentCatalog.find_or_create('color', 'red', 'blue')
#- create a new trial
trial = Split::Trial.new(:experiment => experiment)
#- run trial
trial.choose! # << this will fail

[jmccaffrey]

I had not seen the steps described in the wiki
https://github.com/splitrb/split/wiki/Use-Split-outside-a-web-request

The key part is to pass a user reference (and know how an existing user is identified)
key = "user-#{user.id}"
ab_user = Split::User.new(nil, Split::Persistence::RedisAdapter.new(nil, key))

        trial = Split::Trial.new(user: ab_user, experiment: experiment) # << passing in the ab_user is the key
        trial.choose! # << now this doesn't fail

The readme can just be updated with the part about initing a user reference to pass to Trial.new, then trial.choose! won't fail

[andrehjr]

Hi @jmccaffrey thanks for the issue!

I fixed the readme on #716 it's also possible to load doingSplit::User.find(user_key, :redis) as a shortcut.