Devise RPX Connectable

Devise << RPX by Nicolas Blanco

What is Devise?

A great authentication gem for Rails applications.

http://github.com/plataformatec/devise

What is RPX?

RPX is a Software as a Service (SaaS) that helps you manage multiple authentication methods (FacebookConnect, Google, Twitter, OpenID, MySpace…) using a single API.
It also provides a multilingual connection widget.
Instead of managing multiple authentication providers and APIs, you just need to handle one.

RPX provides free and paid accounts.

See RPX official homepage. If you want to see what it looks like, you may signup on the RPX website as it uses RPX for signup :).

What is Devise RPX Connectable?

Devise RPX Connectable is a gem to integrate RPX authentication in a Rails application using Devise.

Please note that this is an unofficial library. It is neither affiliated with, nor endorsed by RPX/JanRain Inc.

Dependencies

Devise RPX Connectable was tested using latest stable Rails and Devise gems.

Currently :

Rails : version 2.3.5
Devise : version 1.0.6

I also want it to be compatible with latest prerelease gems of Devise, Rails and Mongoid.
Therefore I also tested it with :

Rails : version 3.0.0beta3
Mongoid : version 2.0.0beta4
Devise : master branch.

Installation

Gem (Rails >= 2.3.5)

  $ sudo gem install devise_rpx_connectable

…and in config/environment.rb:

  config.gem 'devise'
  config.gem 'rpx_now'
  config.gem 'devise_rpx_connectable'

Gem (Rails >= 3.0.0beta3)

Gemfile

  gem 'devise', :git => 'git://github.com/plataformatec/devise.git'
  gem 'rpx_now'
  gem 'devise_rpx_connectable'

Setup

Devise: Setup

See Devise documentation for instructions on how to setup Devise.

Devise: Model

Add :rpx_connectable in your Devise model (ie. User.rb)

  devise ..., :rpx_connectable

Devise:Setup

In the Devise initializer (may be config/initializers/devise.rb) :

  Devise.setup do |config|
    ...
    config.rpx_application_name = "mytestingapp" # The name of your RPX application (this is the name, NOT the API key!)
  end

RPXNow:API Key

In config/environment.rb :

  ...
  config.after_initialize do # so rake gems:install works
    RPXNow.api_key = "aaaabbbbbccccdddddeeeeefffff"
  end
  ...

Migrations

Your model needs one attribute/column to store the RPX identifier. By default, this identifier is rpx_identifier.

Views

The RPX connection widget can be added in your application using a link or an iframe.
If you choose to use a link, the connection widget can be displayed in a new page (standard link) or using Javascript in overlay.

I added an easy to use helper to add a link to the RPX connection popup.

  <%= link_to_rpx "Signin using RPX!", user_session_url %>

If you use the link alone, users will be redirected to a new page.
If you want the more sexy popup in overlay, you need to add the JS code before the </body> of your layout.
An helper is also included for this task :

      ...
      <%= javascript_include_rpx(user_session_url) %>
    </body>
  </html>

If you want to display the connection widget in an iframe inside a page :

  <%= embed_rpx user_session_url %>

Advanced

There is some advanced features that you may use…

Devise:Setup

  Devise.setup do |config|
    ...
		config.rpx_auto_create_account = true # false if you don't want to create users automaticaly. True by default.
		config.rpx_additional_user_data = [:verifiedEmail, :url, :providerName,:photo] #default [], get some extra profile info from RPXnow, default only a few fields are available in the rpx_user object (https://rpxnow.com/docs#profile_data)
		config.rpx_extended_user_data = true #false by default, extended data only available for premium users (https://rpxnow.com/docs#api_auth_info)
  end

Devise:Model

Some hooks are available to get the RPXNow user data objects before or after the connection. Read the RPXNow gem documentation for more information.

  def before_rpx_connect(rpx_user)
    # Do something with rpx_user...
  end
  
  def after_rpx_connect(rpx_user)
    # Do something with rpx_user
  end

TODO

• With Rails 3 (only) I get an invalid auth token in sessions#create action. I have to skip the validation of the auth token. See why?
• Handle RPX multiple accounts mapping?

Contributors

• Paco Benavent

Thanks

The base of this gem was heavily inspired from the Devise Facebook Connectable gem by Jonas Grimfelt and other Devise gems.
This gem also uses the great rpx_now by Michael Grosser

License

Released under the MIT license.
Copyright © 2010 Nicolas Blanco