Rails 4 strong params error: no implicit conversion of Symbol into String -

i importing data spreadsheet app database.

the data parsed rows. each parsed row looks like:

{:department=>{   :school=>"graduate school of business",   :name=>"graduate school of business",   :program=>"mba program",   :url=>"http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba",   :intro=>"the stanford mba program two-year, full-time, residential program.",   :students_number=>"approximately 80 annually",   :students_with_aids_number=>nil,   :gre_scroe=>nil,   :toefl_score=>nil,   :world_rank=>nil,   :us_rank=>nil,   :without_aid_deadline=>nil,   :with_aid_deadline=>nil,   :salary=>nil,   :institute_id=>1} } 

to create department:

 # att hash shown above     department = department.new(department_params(att))     if !department.save         puts "error: \n department can't save: #{department.errors.full_messages}"     end   def department_params params    params.require(:department).permit(:name,:url,:institute_id)  end 

but got error:

no implicit conversion of symbol string 

which points

params.require(:department).permit(:name,:url,:institute_id) 

how fix it? thanks!

getting rails-api , strong_parameters work together

i think it'll similar. need include actioncontroller::strongparameters not require described in linked question.

in case adding new initializer with

actioncontroller::api.send :include, actioncontroller::strongparameters