Tutorial
This is a detailed tutorial showing how to use Mongoid with Devise. Mongoid is a datastore that gives you quick development without schemas or migrations. Devise gives you ready-made authentication and user management. This tutorial also gives you the option of using jQuery, Haml, RSpec and Cucumber, showing how to integrate each option.
| Author | Example App | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Plataformatec | Devise | Simple example using SQLite |
| Daniel Kehoe | Devise, RSpec, Cucumber | Detailed tutorial, app template, starter app, using SQLite |
| Daniel Kehoe | OmniAuth, Mongoid | Detailed tutorial, app template, starter app, using MongoDB |
See a list of additional Rails examples, tutorials, and starter apps.
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TutorialThis tutorial documents each step that you must follow to create this application. Every step is documented concisely, so a complete beginner can create this application without any additional knowledge. However, no explanation is offered for any of the steps, so if you are a beginner, you’re advised to look for an introduction to Rails elsewhere. See a list of Rails books and online instruction for recommended reading.
Cut and paste the code.
To create the application, you can cut and paste the code from the tutorial into your own files. It’s a bit tedious and error-prone but you’ll have a good opportunity to examine the code closely.
Use the ready-made application template to generate the code.
You can use an application template to generate a new Rails app with code that closely matches the tutorial. You’ll find an application template for this tutorial in the rails3-application-templates repository.
Use the command:
$ rails new APP_NAME -m https://github.com/railsapps/rails3-application-templates/raw/master/rails3-mongoid-devise-template.rb -T -O
Use the -T -O flags to skip Test::Unit files and Active Record files. Add the -J flag to skip Prototype files for Rails 3.0 (not needed for Rails 3.1).
This creates a new Rails app (with the APP_NAME you provide) on your computer. It includes everything in the example app. You can read through the tutorial with the code already on your computer.
You MUST be using Rails 3.0.4 or newer. Generating a Rails application from an “HTTPS” URL does not work in Rails 3.0.3 and earlier versions.
Use the rails_apps_composer gem to create a reusuable application template.
This is optimal if you are creating a “starter app” based on this example app but wish to customize the code for your own preferences.
Each step in this tutorial has a corresponding application template recipe from the rails_apps_composer recipes repository. You can create your own application template using the template recipes. To do so, download the rails_apps_composer project, customize recipes as needed, and follow the instructions to create a reusable application template file.
Before beginning this tutorial, you need to install
- The Ruby language (version 1.8.7 or 1.9.2)
- Rails (3.0 or 3.1)
- A working installation of MongoDB (version 1.6.0 or newer)
I recommend installing rvm, the Ruby Version Manager, to manage multiple versions of Rails.
Check that appropriate versions of Ruby and Rails are installed in your development environment:
$ ruby -v
$ rails -v
If you don’t have MongoDB installed on your computer, you’ll need to install it and set it up to be always running on your computer (run at launch). On Mac OS X, the easiest way to install MongoDB is to install Homebrew and then run the following:
brew install mongodb
Homebrew will provide post-installation instructions to get MongoDB running. The last line of the installation output shows you the MongoDB install location (for example, /usr/local/Cellar/mongodb/1.8.0-x86_64). You’ll find the MongoDB configuration file there. After an installation using Homebrew, the default data directory will be /usr/local/var/mongodb.
Open a terminal, navigate to a folder where you have rights to create files, and type:
$ rails new rails3-mongoid-devise -T -O
Use the -T -O flags to skip Test::Unit files and Active Record files. Add the -J flag to skip Prototype files for Rails 3.0 (not needed for Rails 3.1).
You may give the app a different name if you are building it for your own use. For this tutorial, we’ll assume the name is “rails3-mongoid-devise.”
This will create a Rails application that uses a SQLite database for data storage. We’ll modify it to use MongoDB.
After you create the application, switch to its folder to continue work directly in that application:
$ cd rails3-mongoid-devise
If you’re open sourcing the app on GitHub, please edit the README file to add a description of the app and your contact info. Changing the README is important if you’re using a clone of the example app. I’ve been mistaken (and contacted) as the author of apps that are copied from my example.
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the git recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
If you’re creating an app for deployment into production, you’ll want to set up a source control repository at this point. If you are building a throw-away app for your own education, you may skip this step.
Check that git is installed on your computer:
$ git version
Rails 3 has already created a .gitignore file for you. You may want to modify it:
.bundle db/*.sqlite3 log/*.log tmp/ .DS_Store
Initialize git and check in your first commit:
$ git init
$ git add .
$ git commit -am 'initial commit'
You can check your commit status at any time with:
$ git status
Use a remote source control repository if you want an offsite copy of your work or you plan to share your work with others.
We’ll assume you have an account at GitHub. Check that your GitHub account is set up properly:
$ ssh git(at)github.com
Go to GitHub and create a new empty repository (http://github.com/repositories/new) into which you can push your local git repo.
Add GitHub as a remote repository for your project and push your local project to the remote repository:
$ git remote add origin git(at)github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_ACCOUNT/YOUR_PROJECT_NAME.git
$ git push origin master
At each stage of completion, you should check your code into your local repository:
$ git commit -am "some helpful comment"
and then push it to the remote repository:
$ git push origin master
The application uses the following gems. I recommend checking for newer versions of these gems before proceeding:
- rails (check rubygems.org for a newer gem)
- mongoid (Check rubygems.org for a newer gem)
- bson_ext (Check rubygems.org for a newer gem)
- devise (Check rubygems.org for a newer gem)
- rspec-rails (Check rubygems.org for a newer gem)
- database_cleaner (Check rubygems.org for a newer gem)
- factory_girl_rails (Check rubygems.org for a newer gem)
- cucumber-rails (Check rubygems.org for a newer gem)
- capybara (Check rubygems.org for a newer gem)
The app has been tested with the indicated versions. If you are able to build the app with a newer gem, please create an issue on GitHub and I will update the app.
For Rails 3.1, edit the Gemfile file to look like this:
source 'http://rubygems.org' gem 'rails', '>= 3.1.0.beta1' gem 'sass' gem 'coffee-script' gem 'uglifier' gem 'jquery-rails' gem 'mongoid', '>= 2.0.1' gem 'bson_ext', '>= 1.3.1' gem 'devise', '>= 1.3.4' gem 'rspec-rails', '>= 2.6.0', :group => [:development, :test] group :test do gem 'turn', :require => false gem 'factory_girl_rails', ">= 1.1.beta1" gem 'cucumber-rails', ">= 0.4.1" gem 'capybara', ">= 0.4.1.2" gem 'database_cleaner', '>= 0.6.7' end
For Rails 3.0, edit the Gemfile file to look like this:
source 'http://rubygems.org' gem 'rails', '>= 3.0.7' gem 'mongoid', '>= 2.0.1' gem 'bson_ext', '>= 1.3.1' gem 'devise', '>= 1.3.4' gem 'rspec-rails', '>= 2.6.0', :group => [:development, :test] group :test do gem 'turn', :require => false gem 'factory_girl_rails', ">= 1.1.beta1" gem 'cucumber-rails', ">= 0.4.1" gem 'capybara', ">= 0.4.1.2" gem 'database_cleaner', '>= 0.6.7' end
Install the required gems on your computer:
$ bundle install
You can check which gems are installed on your computer with:
$ gem list --local
Keep in mind that you have installed these gems locally. When you deploy the app to another server, the same gems (and versions) must be available.
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the jquery recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
This example application doesn’t make use of jQuery. But many Rails developers prefer it as an alternative to the Prototype Javascript framework so instructions are included here.
Here’s how to manually install jQuery.
If you used the -J flag when you ran rails new the Prototype Javascript files won’t be there. If not, remove the Prototype Javascript files from the public/javascripts directory:
- controls.js
- dragdrop.js
- effects.js
- prototype.js
Download jQuery and rails.js and place them in the public/javascripts directory.
cd public/javascripts curl -o rails.js https://github.com/rails/jquery-ujs/raw/master/src/rails.js curl -o jquery.js http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.5.2.min.js
If you used the -J flag when you ran rails new the following statement will be uncommented and you don’t need to do anything. Otherwise, uncomment the following statement in the config/application.rb file (or add it if it is missing):
config.action_view.javascript_expansions[:defaults] = %w(jquery rails)
This configures the template helper javascript_include_tag :defaults to generate SCRIPT tags to load jQuery and the rails.js script.
If you used the -J flag when you ran rails new it is best to manually install jQuery as described above.
As an alternative to manual installation of jQuery, you can add a gem and run a generator command.
# Gemfile gem 'jquery-rails', '>= 0.2.7'
Run the generator command (add --ui if you want the optional jQuery UI library):
$ bundle install $ rails generate jquery:install
This will remove the Prototype files from the public/javascripts directory, download jQuery files, and download the rails.js file. Be sure to choose to overwrite the rails.js file (or remove it first).
Note: If you used the -J flag when you ran rails new (using the “-J” flag to eliminate the Prototype files) then in the config/application.rb file the statement config.action_view.javascript_expansions[:defaults] = %w() is not commented out and the jquery-rails gem lib/jquery-rails.rb file cannot override config.action_view.javascript_expansions[:defaults] to include the jquery files and you’ll get an error “No expansion found for :defaults” when you run your app. See this issue for more information. The solution is to comment out the statement config.action_view.javascript_expansions[:defaults] = %w() in the config/application.rb file (it takes precedence over the jquery-rails gem lib/jquery-rails.rb file).
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the haml recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
In this example, we’ll use the default “ERB” Rails template engine. Optionally, you can use another template engine, such as Haml. You’ll need extra gems in the Gemfile for Haml:
gem 'haml', '>= 3.0.25' gem 'haml-rails', '>= 0.3.4', :group => :development
Run the gem bundler command:
$ bundle install
With the haml-rails gem, there is no need to modify the application.rb file to accommodate Haml. Any time you generate a controller or scaffold, you’ll get Haml instead of ERB templates. And when your Rails application loads, Haml will be loaded and initialized.
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the rspec recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
You don’t have to install RSpec. The example app will run without it. However, if you are planning to use the example app as a starter app for futher development, you really should install RSpec. RSpec is generally preferred to the Rails default TestUnit for unit testing.
The RSpec Book is the best reference for using RSpec.
Use the gem rspec-rails to set up the app for RSpec.
Add the following to your Gemfile file:
gem 'rspec-rails', '>= 2.5.0', :group => [:development, :test] gem 'database_cleaner', '>= 0.6.6', :group => :test gem 'factory_girl_rails', ">= 1.1.beta1", :group => :test gem 'mongoid-rspec', ">= 1.4.1", :group => :test
The gem rspec-rails needs to be in the :development group (as well as the :test group) to expose generators and rake tasks during development.
The gems mongoid-rspec and factory_girl_rails add additional capabilities (described below).
Install the required gems on your computer:
$ bundle install
Use the rspec-rails generator to set up files needed for RSpec:
$ rails generate rspec:install
You can remove the test folder (it is not needed for RSpec):
$ rm -rf test/
You can also modify the config/application.rb file to remove the following:
require 'rails/test_unit/railtie'
When RSpec is installed, Rails generators create specs for views and helpers when the rails generate controller or rails generate scaffold commands are run. If you don’t want specs for views and helpers, modify the config/application.rb file to add the following:
class Application < Rails::Application
config.generators do |g|
g.view_specs false
g.helper_specs false
end
To use Mongoid with RSpec, you’ll need to remove ActiveRecord artifacts from the spec/spec_helper.rb file. Modify the file to comment out or remove:
# config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"
# config.use_transactional_fixtures = true
Without this adjustment, when you run rake spec with spec files that contain require 'spec_helper' you’ll get an error undefined method `fixture_path='.
RSpec needs to reset the database during testing. You’ll need to configure RSpec to inform Database Cleaner that you are using Mongoid.
Modify the file spec/spec_helper.rb to add this:
RSpec.configure do |config|
# Other things
# Clean up the database
require 'database_cleaner'
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
DatabaseCleaner.orm = "mongoid"
end
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
end
Matchers provide ready-made code for your specs, allowing you to quickly add tests for common features. If you are writing specs for ORM features such as validation in Rails models, you will need matchers customized for RSpec and Mongoid. Two similar gems are available: mongoid-rspec and remarkable_mongoid. We use mongoid-rspec in this example. You’ll need gem 'mongoid-rspec', :group => :test in your Gemfile.
Create a file spec/support/mongoid.rb:
RSpec.configure do |config| config.include Mongoid::Matchers end
Now you can use the RSpec matchers for Mongoid when you write tests. Keep in mind that it may be worthwhile to test validations using ORM matchers but testing of associations is often redundant because Mongoid is well-tested. In general, it is preferable to use Cucumber scenarios to test higher-level functionality and reduce dependency on a specific ORM (see a discussion).
The Factory Girl gem is used to create default model objects for tests. For example, if a controller action requires finding a User object before displaying a “show” page, Factory Girl will create a user just for a test of the controller. You’ll need gem 'factory_girl_rails', :group => :test in your Gemfile.
You’ll need a spec/factories.rb file to contain the factory definitions for any default objects used for testing. The example spec directory contains an implementation.
Using Devise, your controllers will often include before_filter :authenticate_user! to limit access to signed-in users. Your tests will fail unless a default user is created and logs in before each test runs. Devise provides test helpers to make it simple to create and log in a default user.
Create a file spec/support/devise.rb:
RSpec.configure do |config| config.include Devise::TestHelpers, :type => :controller end
Now you can write controller specs that set up a signed-in user before tests are run.
Run rake -T to check that rake tasks for RSpec are available.
You should be able to run rake spec to run all specs. If you haven’t written any specs, you’ll see the message “No examples matching ./spec//_spec.rb could be found”.
You can copy the files from the example spec directory to use our ready-made specs.
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the cucumber recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
It’s not necessary to add Cucumber (the example will run without it). However, it’s a recommended practice to specify use cases (“user stories”) as Cucumber scenarios. It’s a good way to plan development and, using Cucumber, you’ll have specifications for automated acceptance testing.
The RSpec Book covers Cucumber as well as RSpec. The free book The Secret Ninja Cucumber Scrolls is another good reference for using Cucumber.
Use the gem cucumber-rails to set up the app for Cucumber.
Add the following to your Gemfile file:
gem 'cucumber-rails', ">= 0.4.1", :group => :test gem 'capybara', ">= 0.4.1.2", :group => :test
Install the required gems on your computer:
$ bundle install
Use the cucumber-rails generator to set up files needed for Cucumber:
$ rails generate cucumber:install --capybara --rspec --skip-database
The -–capybara option specifies Capybara instead of the default Webrat for acceptance testing. The -–rspec option enables RSpec matchers for your step definitions. If you used the -O flag when you generated the application, the --skip-database option will allow the Cucumber generator to proced without a database.yml file.
To reset your application database to a pristine state during testing, Cucumber makes use of Database Cleaner. You’ll need to configure Cucumber to inform Database Cleaner that you are using Mongoid.
Modify the file features/support/env.rb like this:
begin DatabaseCleaner.orm = 'mongoid' DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation rescue NameError raise "You need to add database_cleaner to your Gemfile (in the :test group) if you wish to use it." end
Run rake -T to check that rake tasks for Cucumber are available.
You should be able to run rake cucumber (or more simply, cucumber) to run all Cucumber scenarios and steps. If you haven’t written any Cucumber scenarios and steps, you’ll see the message “0 scenarios, 0 steps”.
You can copy the files from the example features directory to use our ready-made Cucumber scenarios.
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the mongoid recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
Mongoid provides access to the MongoDB database from Rails.
You may want to check the current instructions for installing Mongoid.
Set up Mongoid with:
$ rails generate mongoid:config
You can use the default Mongoid configuration found in the file config/mongoid.yml.
The Mongoid generator automatically modifies the config/application.rb file to use Mongoid instead of the default ActiveRecord.
It will replace the line:
require 'rails/all'
with:
require "action_controller/railtie" require "action_mailer/railtie" require "active_resource/railtie"
If you are using RSpec, you don’t need the following. Be sure to comment it out unless you are using the default Test::Unit.
# require "rails/test_unit/railtie"
Now you can safely remove the file config/database.yml.
Note that it is no longer necessary (as of 9 June 2010) to modify config/application.rb for Mongoid. The necessary changes to the Rails generators are handled by the Mongoid gem. When you generate a model, Rails will generate a Mongoid Document.
You can check that your app runs properly by entering the command
$ rails server
To see your application in action, open a browser window and navigate to http://localhost:3000/. You should see the Rails default information page.
Stop the server with Control-C.
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the action_mailer recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
In its default configuration, Devise sends email messages to confirm new users and reset passwords. You’ll want to configure ActionMailer to show errors during development and suppress failures when the app is deployed to production.
Set up action_mailer in your development environment in the file
config/environments/development.rb
by changing:
# Don't care if the mailer can't send # config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = false
and adding:
# ActionMailer Config
config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { :host => 'localhost:3000' }
# A dummy setup for development - no deliveries, but logged
config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
config.action_mailer.perform_deliveries = false
config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = true
config.action_mailer.default :charset => "utf-8"
Set up action_mailer in your production environment in the file
config/environments/production.rb
by adding:
config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { :host => 'yourhost.com' }
# ActionMailer Config
# Setup for production - deliveries, no errors raised
config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
config.action_mailer.perform_deliveries = true
config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = false
config.action_mailer.default :charset => "utf-8"
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the devise recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
This app uses Devise for user management and authentication. Devise is at http://github.com/plataformatec/devise.
We’ve already installed the Devise gem with the $ bundle install command. Run the generator:
$ rails generate devise:install
which installs a configuration file:
config/initializers/devise.rb
and a localization file.
Devise will recognize that you already have Mongoid installed and it will set its ORM configuration in the config/initializers/devise.rb file to include:
require 'devise/orm/mongoid'
Devise can manage users and administrators separately, allowing two (or more) roles to be implemented differently. For this example, we just implement Users.
Use Devise to generate models and routes for a User:
$ rails generate devise User
Devise will recognize that Mongoid is installed and set up the User model with
include Mongoid::Document
which must precede all other statements in the model.
Devise will modify the config/routes.rb file to add:
devise_for :users
which provides a complete set of routes for user signup and login. If you run rake routes you can see the routes that this line of code creates.
We don’t want passwords written to our log file. In Rails 2, we would change the file
controllers/application_controller.rb
to include:
filter_parameter_logging :password, :password_confirmation
In Rails 3, this is deprecated and instead we modify the file config/application.rb to include:
config.filter_parameters += [:password, :password_confirmation]
Note that filter_parameters is an array.
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the add_user_name recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
By default, Devise uses an email address to identify users. We’ll add a “name” attribute as well.
We’re using Mongoid so there is no need to set up migration files as we would with MySQL or SQLite.
We’ll modify the user model to allow a “name” to be included when adding or updating a record.
You’ll also want to prevent malicious hackers from creating fake web forms that would allow changing of passwords through the mass-assignment operations of update_attributes(attrs) and new(attrs). With the default Rails ActiveRecord, Devise adds
attr_accessible :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :remember_me
You’ll need to add this yourself when using Mongoid.
Modify the file models/user.rb and add:
field :name validates_presence_of :name validates_uniqueness_of :name, :email, :case_sensitive => false attr_accessible :name, :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :remember_me
This will allow users to be created (or edited) with a name attribute. When a user is created, a name and email address must be present and must be unique (not used before). Note that Devise (by default) will check that the email address and password are not blank.
Devise provides a controller and views for registering users. It is called the “registerable” module. The controller and views are hidden in the Devise gem so we don’t need to create anything. However, because we want our users to provide a name when registering, we will create custom views for creating and editing a user. Our custom views will override the Devise gem defaults.
First, to copy all the default Devise views to your application, run
rails generate devise:views
This will generate a set of views in the directory app/views/devise/.
Next, modify the views to create and edit users.
Add the following code to each file:
app/views/devise/registrations/edit.html.erb
<p><%= f.label :name %><br /> <%= f.text_field :name %></p>
app/views/devise/registrations/new.html.erb
<p><%= f.label :name %><br /> <%= f.text_field :name %></p>
We do not need to add a controller with methods to create a new user or edit or delete a user. We use the existing “registerable” module from Devise which provides a controller with methods to create, edit or delete a user.
Note that Devise’s default behaviour allows any logged-in user to edit or delete his or her own record (but no one else’s). When you access the edit page you are editing just your info, and not info of other users.
If you are using Haml, Devise does not generate views for Haml (it did before February 15, 2011; see Devise issue 878).
You can create the files:
app/views/devise/registrations/edit.html.haml
%h2
Edit #{resource_name.to_s.humanize}
= form_for(resource, :as => resource_name, :url => registration_path(resource_name), :html => { :method => :put }) do |f|
= devise_error_messages!
%p
= f.label :name
%br/
= f.text_field :name
%p
= f.label :email
%br/
= f.email_field :email
%p
= f.label :password
%i (leave blank if you don't want to change it)
%br/
= f.password_field :password
%p
= f.label :password_confirmation
%br/
= f.password_field :password_confirmation
%p
= f.label :current_password
%i (we need your current password to confirm your changes)
%br/
= f.password_field :current_password
%p= f.submit "Update"
%h3 Cancel my account
%p
Unhappy? #{link_to "Cancel my account", registration_path(resource_name), :confirm => "Are you sure?", :method => :delete}.
= link_to "Back", :back
app/views/devise/registrations/new.html.haml
%h2 Sign up
= form_for(resource, :as => resource_name, :url => registration_path(resource_name)) do |f|
= devise_error_messages!
%p
= f.label :name
%br/
= f.text_field :name
%p
= f.label :email
%br/
= f.email_field :email
%p
= f.label :password
%br/
= f.password_field :password
%p
= f.label :password_confirmation
%br/
= f.password_field :password_confirmation
%p= f.submit "Sign up"
= render :partial => "devise/shared/links"
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the home_page recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
Delete the default home page from your application:
$ rm public/index.html
Create the first page of the application. Use the Rails generate command to create a “home” controller and a “views/home/index” page.
$ rails generate controller home index
If you’re using the default template engine, you’ll find an erb file with placeholder content:
app/views/home/index.html.erb
If you’re using Haml, you’ll find a haml file with placeholder content:
app/views/home/index.html.haml
We’ll assume you’re using the default template engine for the remainder of this tutorial.
Now, you have to set a route to your home page. Edit the file config/routes.rb and replace:
get "home/index"
with
root :to => "home#index"
We’ll add some content to the home page in the next step.
You can check that your app runs properly by entering the command
$ rails server
To see your application in action, open a browser window and navigate to http://localhost:3000/. You should see your new home page.
Stop the server with Control-C.
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the home_page_users recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
Modify the file controllers/home_controller.rb and add:
def index @users = User.all end
Modify the file app/views/home/index.html.erb and add:
<h3>Home</h3> <% @users.each do |user| %> <p>User: <%= user.name %> </p> <% end %>
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the seed_database recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
You’ll want to set up a default user so you can test the app. Modify the file db/seeds.rb by adding:
puts 'EMPTY THE MONGODB DATABASE'
Mongoid.master.collections.reject { |c| c.name =~ /^system/}.each(&:drop)
puts 'SETTING UP DEFAULT USER LOGIN'
user = User.create! :name => 'First User', :email => '[email protected]', :password => 'please', :password_confirmation => 'please'
puts 'New user created: ' << user.name
You can change the values for name, email, and password as you wish.
Add the default user to the MongoDB database by running the command:
$ rake db:seed
At this point, you may want to know if the default user has been saved to the MongoDB database.
You can check that your app runs properly by entering the command
$ rails server
To see your application in action, open a browser window and navigate to http://localhost:3000/. You should see your new home page.
Stop the server with Control-C.
You’ll want to see how Devise manages authentication.
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the users_page recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
Use the Rails generate command to create a “users” controller and a “views/user/show” page.
$ rails generate controller users show
Note that “users” is plural when you create the controller.
Modify the file controllers/users_controller.rb and add:
before_filter :authenticate_user! def show @user = User.find(params[:id]) end
The file config/routes.rb has already been modified to include:
get "users/show"
Remove that and change the routes to:
root :to => "home#index" devise_for :users resources :users, :only => :show
Important note: The devise_for :users route must be placed above resources :users, :only => :show.
Modify the file app/views/users/show.html.erb and add:
<p>User: <%= @user.name %></p>
You’ve already modifed the file controllers/home_controller.rb to include this:
def index @users = User.all end
Now modify the file app/views/home/index.html.erb to look like this:
<h3>Home</h3> <% @users.each do |user| %> <p>User: <%=link_to user.name, user %></p> <% end %>
Rails will use the layout defined in the file app/views/layouts/application.html.erb or app/views/layouts/application.html.haml as a default for rendering any page. Set up your application layout by modifying the default.
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the css_setup recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
We’ll create a very simple stylesheet with styling for a horizontal menu and flash messages:
Create a public/stylesheets/application.css file:
ul.hmenu {
list-style: none;
margin: 0 0 2em;
padding: 0;
}
ul.hmenu li {
display: inline;
}
#flash_notice, #flash_alert {
padding: 5px 8px;
margin: 10px 0;
}
#flash_notice {
background-color: #CFC;
border: solid 1px #6C6;
}
#flash_alert {
background-color: #FCC;
border: solid 1px #C66;
}
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the application_layout recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
The default application layout app/views/layouts/application.html.erb looks like this:
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title><%= app_name %></title> <%= stylesheet_link_tag :all %> <%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %> <%= csrf_meta_tag %> </head> <body> <%= yield %> </body> </html>
If you are using Haml, remove app/views/layouts/application.html.erb and replace it with app/views/layouts/application.html.haml like this:
$ rm public/index.html
!!!
%html
%head
%title #{app_name}
= stylesheet_link_tag :all
= javascript_include_tag :defaults
= csrf_meta_tag
%body
= yield
You’ll modify the default application layout in the next steps.
Include flash messages in app/views/layouts/application.html.erb like this:
<body>
<%- flash.each do |name, msg| -%>
<%= content_tag :div, msg, :id => "flash_#{name}" if msg.is_a?(String) %>
<%- end -%>
<%= yield %>
For Haml, modify app/views/layouts/application.html.haml like this:
%body
- flash.each do |name, msg|
= content_tag :div, msg, :id => "flash_#{name}" if msg.is_a?(String)
= yield
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the devise_navigation recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
You will want to add navigation links to the application layout for the Devise sign-up and log-in actions. You’ll find a simple example on the Devise wiki.
Create a menu directory under app/views/devise. Then create the file app/views/devise/menu/_login_items.html.erb and add:
<% if user_signed_in? %>
<li>
<%= link_to('Logout', destroy_user_session_path) %>
</li>
<% else %>
<li>
<%= link_to('Login', new_user_session_path) %>
</li>
<% end %>
Create the file app/views/devise/menu/_registration_items.html.erb and add:
<% if user_signed_in? %>
<li>
<%= link_to('Edit account', edit_user_registration_path) %>
</li>
<% else %>
<li>
<%= link_to('Sign up', new_user_registration_path) %>
</li>
<% end %>
Then use these partials in your app/views/layouts/application.html.erb file, like this:
<body>
<ul class="hmenu">
<%= render 'devise/menu/registration_items' %>
<%= render 'devise/menu/login_items' %>
</ul>
<%- flash.each do |name, msg| -%>
<%= content_tag :div, msg, :id => "flash_#{name}" if msg.is_a?(String) %>
<%- end -%>
<%= yield %>
For Haml, modify app/views/layouts/application.html.haml like this:
%body
%ul.hmenu
= render 'devise/menu/registration_items'
= render 'devise/menu/login_items'
- flash.each do |name, msg|
= content_tag :div, msg, :id => "flash_#{name}" if msg.is_a?(String)
= yield
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the cleanup recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
Remove various unneeded files from your application:
$ rm public/favicon.ico $ rm public/images/rails.png
In a previous step, you deleted the default home page from your application. But if you didn’t already:
$ rm public/index.html
If you are creating an application template, this step uses the ban_spiders recipe from the rails_apps_composer repository.
You may want to modify the file public/robots.txt to prevent indexing by search engines if you plan to have a development version on a publicly accessible server:
# To ban all spiders from the entire site uncomment the next two lines: User-Agent: * Disallow: /
You can check that your app runs properly by entering the command
$ rails server
To see your application in action, open a browser window and navigate to http://localhost:3000/. You should see the default user listed on the home page. When you click on the user’s name, you should be required to log in before seeing the user’s detail page.
Stop the server with Control-C.
For your convenience, here are instructions for deploying your app to Heroku. Heroku provides low cost, easily configured Rails application hosting.
This concludes the tutorial for creating a Ruby on Rails web application that requires Rails 3 and uses Mongoid for data storage and Devise for user management and authentication.
Daniel Kehoe (http://danielkehoe.com/) implemented the application and wrote the tutorial.
Was this useful to you? Follow the project on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/rails_apps
and tweet some praise. I’d love to know you were helped out by the tutorial.
Any issues? Please create an Issue on GitHub.
Thank you for improvements to the tutorial by contributors Cory Foy, Luca G. Soave, Bob Clewell, and Justin Workman.