Error 400 on SERVER: Evaluation Error: Error while evaluating a Function Call, undefined method `build' for nil:NilClass at (wrapper class)

[alathers]

When trying to use the syslog_ng::source type I get the above error.
.... /syslog_ng/manifests/source.pp:12:18

Ruby is 1.9.3 OS is Ubuntu 14. Puppet is 3.8. I haven't been able to debug and diagnose just yet, but it seems to be related to:

in source.pp, this is the line:
content => generate_statement($id, $type, $params),

which refers to:
Statement.generate_statement(id, type, params)

which leads to:
def self.generate_statement(id, type, options)
create_configuration_tree(id, type, options)
render_configuration()
end