Ruby on Rails
HowToQuicklyDoAuthenticationWithLoginGenerator

This no longer works for rails version 2.0.2. An update for this generator is necessary

1. Install the LoginGenerator gem:
   

   gem install login_generator
   

2. Generate a login system, we’ll call it “Account¹”
   

   ruby script/generate login Account
   

3. Make a table to store users; choose the flavor that suits your needs:
   

   mysql syntax:
     CREATE TABLE users (
       id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
       login varchar(80) default NULL,
       password varchar(40) default NULL,
       PRIMARY KEY  (id)
     );

sqlite:
CREATE TABLE ‘users’ (
‘id’ INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
‘login’ VARCHAR DEFAULT NULL,
‘password’ VARCHAR DEFAULT NULL
);


• or using rake migrate
  

  
  class CreateUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
    def self.up
    create_table :users do |t|
    t.column :login, :string, :default => nil
    t.column :password, :string, :default => nil
    end
    end

end


If you want to add a default user make sure to set passwordconfirmation in the migration_ (add this line in self.up)

User.create(:login => 'admin',
  :password => 'password',
  :password_confirmation => 'password')

1. Edit app/controllers/application.rb, and make it look something like this:
   

   require 'login_system'

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
include LoginSystem
model :user
endvi

If you’re using Rails > 2.0, don’t include the model line

1. Edit app/controllers/account_controller.rb to set who if anyone can delete users. Until they have admin roles, most people can set it so only account holders can delete their account:
   

   
   def delete
     if params['id'] && @session['user'] && @session['user'].id == params['id']
   

2. Edit your own controllers now, and add the line
   

   before_filter :login_required
   

   
   to the inside of the class so that it ends up looking something like this:
   

   class AllMySecretsController < ApplicationController
      before_filter :login_required
      
      def show_one_secret
         ...
      end
   end
   

3. Of course, I sometimes don’t want every method hidden behind the iron curtain, so I can exclude some of them (such as show_one_secret above) from being protected like so:
   

   class AllMySecretsController < ApplicationController
      before_filter :login_required, :except => [ :show_one_secret ]
      
      def show_one_secret
         ...
      end
   end
   

4. Now, we’re all eager to actually add users too, so let’s go ahead and do that. Point your browser to:
   http://myrails.foobar.com/account/signup

and voila! you can start adding users.

Much info taken from Login Generator’s README_LOGIN
——

¹ You can call the login controller whatever you want (Account is just an example). However to change the login system to use a model other than “User” (for instance "MyModel") you will need to modify the following:

• lib/login_system.rb (“user” to "my_model")
• app/controllers/your_controller.rb (“user” to “my_model” and “User” to "MyModel")
• app/controllers/application.rb (change the model from “user” to "my_model")
• app/models/user.rb(rename from “user.rb” to “my_model.rb” and change “User” to “MyModel” and “user” to "my_model")
• app/views/login.rhtml (“user_” to "my_model_")
• app/views/signup.rhtml (“user_” to "my_model_")

category: Howto