BackgroundRb and Synchronous calls

BackgroundRb lets you also call the workers synchronously. This is quite neat as you can use it as a form of pseudo-proxy and all other kinds of goodies.
But, the documentation is lacking, so I am posting this for all you frustrated Googlers out there. Here is what you need to do.

class SampleWorker < BackgrounDRb::MetaWorker
  set_worker_name :sample_worker

  def create(args = nil)
    # this method is called, when worker is loaded for the first time
  end
  
  def test_me args
    puts "test_me 1 (puts)"
    logger.debug("test_me hit (log)")
    return "of course it works"
  end
end

Now, the BackgroundRb site tells you to call this like so to get a response back:

MiddleMan.worker(:sample_worker).test_me(:arg => "1")

This, in fact, won't work.

You need to do this:

MiddleMan.worker(:sample_worker).test_me({:arg => "1"}, true)

The second parameter (and make sure you put {} around your first set of args) is some freaky boolean to say, "no, seriously, I want a result back". Otherwise you get nil.

Bonus Tip!
When you define a method in a worker it HAS to accept arguments.
This won't work:

def test_me
end

This will:

def test_me(something = 1)
end