Ruby-on-rails – How to manually create a new user and user session in Devise

authlogicdeviseruby-on-railsruby-on-rails-3

I have a form where I collect a lot of information in Rails. Part of this form is fields for a new user to register. Since Devise has controllers/actions specifically to create a new user, I don't know how to programmatically create a user in an entirely different action that also creates another record. I really can't have the user registration form separate. I can't figure out how to create a user, and then log the user in, like I could easily do in Authlogic.

I have used both Authlogic and Devise, and think each has their strengths and weaknesses. With Devise, I love how quick it is to "get going" with a new project, but customizing it seems to be a pain. Authlogic had so many problems with Rails 3 a while back, that I switched to Devise. I'm now working on a new project and get to start from scratch.

So I think there are 2 potential answers to this question: (a) how to do this in Devise, or (b) why I should just switch to Authlogic with Rails 3 instead.

Best Answer

You can create a new Devise user simply by creating a new user model (see https://github.com/plataformatec/devise/wiki/How-To:-Manage-users-through-a-CRUD-interface)

@user = User.new(:email => 'test@example.com', :password => 'password', :password_confirmation => 'password')
@user.save

To sign in your newly created user, use sign_in @user

Related Solutions

Rails 3 Authentication: Authlogic vs Devise

I've used them both, but not extensively. In my last project, I gave Devise a shot. I ended up using Rails-Warden instead.

Devise is a full authentication framework built on top of Warden. To customize its looks, you use generators, then edit the resulting views. Its routes, and view logic are hard coded. For example, successful login will always take you to /session/new? This was a dealbreaker or me, I wanted my users to end up on "welcome/index". Devise is not as well documented, or intuitive as authlogic.

Warden is a middleware framework Devise is based upon. It has plugins for many web authentication schemes (fb, openid, oauth), and it is easy to build a plugin for your own authentication back end. It comes with no UI, and docs are not as good as authlogic.

I ended up using rails-warden because I needed to plugin multiple custom authentication schemes.

Also, see OmniAuth answer below, that's what I am using in 2012.

Ruby-on-rails – Create a devise user from Ruby console

You can add false to the save method to skip the validations if you want.

User.new({:email => "guy@gmail.com", :roles => ["admin"], :password => "111111", :password_confirmation => "111111" }).save(false)

Otherwise I'd do this

User.create!({:email => "guy@gmail.com", :roles => ["admin"], :password => "111111", :password_confirmation => "111111" })

If you have confirmable module enabled for devise, make sure you are setting the confirmed_at value to something like Time.now while creating.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Rails 3 Authentication: Authlogic vs Devise

Ruby-on-rails – Create a devise user from Ruby console

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