Problems implementing ruby geocoder using Sinatra - sinatra

Question

According to the ruby geocoder documentation (rubygeocoder.com), it's possible to use the geocoder gem with a Sinatra app, but I'm running into issues getting it to work and haven't been able to find any working examples or related stackoverflow issues either. I think the problem is due to the fact that it's a Sinatra app and not a full rails app.
My Gemfile:
source "https://rubygems.org"
ruby '2.1.2'
gem 'dotenv', '~> 0.10.0'
gem 'pg', '~> 0.17.1'
gem 'rack-flash3'
gem "sinatra"
gem "activerecord"
gem "sinatra-activerecord"
gem "geocoder"
gem 'omniauth'
gem 'omniauth-google-oauth2'
gem "sqlite3"
gem "shotgun"
The model (which has float latitude and longitude columns) that I want to search by:
class Item < ActiveRecord::Base
extend Geocoder::Model::ActiveRecord
attr_accessor :latitude, :longitude
belongs_to :profile
has_and_belongs_to_many :categories
has_many :reports, dependent: :destroy
}
Here's the app.rb code with the '/' route:
class FL < Sinatra::Base
get '/' do
#items = Item.near('Detroit, MI, US')
puts "ITEMS ARE:"
pp #items
erb :index
end
...
end
Here's the relevant app.rb contents:
require 'rubygems'
require 'sinatra/base'
require 'sinatra/flash'
require 'sinatra/activerecord'
require 'geocoder'
require 'omniauth'
require 'sinatra/flash'
require 'json'
require 'pp'
require 'rack-flash'
require './models/model_init'
require './helpers/helper'
require './auth'
require './admin'
require './api'
class FL < Sinatra::Base
set :root, File.dirname(__FILE__)
enable :logging
enable :sessions
#set :logging, true
register Sinatra::ActiveRecordExtension
register Sinatra::Flash
set :show_exceptions, true if ENV['RACK_ENV'] == 'development'
use Rack::Session::Cookie, :secret => ENV['RACK_COOKIE_SECRET']
end
Finally, here is the error i receive:
NoMethodError - undefined method `near' for #<Class:0x0000010750d0b8>:
/Users/bob/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.0/lib/active_record/dynamic_matchers.rb:26:in `method_missing'
/Users/bob/rails_projects/fl2/api.rb:21:in `block in <class:FL>'
/Users/bob/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/sinatra-1.4.5/lib/sinatra/base.rb:1603:in `call'
/Users/bob/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/sinatra-1.4.5/lib/sinatra/base.rb:1603:in `block in compile!'
/Users/bob/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/sinatra-1.4.5/lib/sinatra/base.rb:966:in `[]'
/Users/bob/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/sinatra-1.4.5/lib/sinatra/base.rb:966:in `block (3 levels) in route!'
Looking at the stacktrace, it looks like its not finding the geocoder package for some reason. I'm not sure if if it's a simple configuration that I'm missing, or if what I'm attempting isn't possible without some gem customization (something beyond my understanding at this point). Any insight, suggestions to try, or examples would be much appreciated. thanks!
Adding my config.ru:
config.ru
require 'bundler/setup'
Bundler.require(:default)
use Bundler.setup(:default) #added this by suggestion
require 'logger'
use Rack::Deflater
Dotenv.load
require "./fl_app"
run FL

Answer 1

I found a solution to this issue, but can't explain why it works. I had to add the line:
reverse_geocoded_by :latitude, :longitude
to my Item model. Once I added that line I was able to use geocoder's 'near' method.
Even though I'm not actually doing any geocoding (converting lat/long to addresses, or vice versa), it still appears to be necessary for the library to work correctly. Thanks #iain for all your helpful advice.