Rails - Mar 2007 - Handling a failed login - doesn't seem to work.

Hi all,

I''m having a problem with a piece of code that should be handling a  
failed login attempt.

I have created a before filter in a controller called  
StoryController, that should only be applied for the new method:

#code
before_filter :login_required, :only => new
#code

login_required is defined in my ApplicationController:

#code
   def login_required
     # if logged_in is true, then just exit
     return true if logged_in?
     # otherwise, store the user''s request url so we can come back
later
     session[:return_to] = request.request_uri
     # redirect the user back to the login page and return false
     redirect_to :controller => "/account", :action =>
"login" and
return false
   end
#code

and logged_in is also defined, as a helper method, in my  
ApplicationController:

#code
   def logged_in?
     ! @current_user.blank?
   end
   helper_method :logged_in?
#code

Finally, @current_user is set in the ApplicationController too, with  
the help of another before filter called fetch_logged_in_user:

#code
   before_filter :fetch_logged_in_user
   protected
   def fetch_logged_in_user
     # if there is no current user, just exit the method and return
     return if session[:user_id].blank?
     # otherwise fetch a User object with an id that is equal to the  
id stored in the session container
     # and assign it to the @current _user instance variable
     @current_user = User.find_by_id(session[:user_id])
   end
#code

Anyway, this all seems to make a certain amount of sense to me.  
@current_user is being set for every page load: a further check for  
the current logged-in user is made when someone attempts to create a  
new story, and if there is no logged-in user then the application  
redirects to a login page. If I read things correctly, since the  
filter returns false then the current controller method (new) should  
just exit, so no story should get created. Sadly, that is not what  
happens in practice. Instead, the story submission works regardless  
of whether or not there is a logged-in user. The only difference is  
that if a user has logged in then their user_id is stored in the  
story table, and otherwise a NULL is stored in the relevant column.

It appears to me that the login_required filter is not being applied,  
but I cannot understand why it is not. Can anyone help enlighten me?  
BTW I am not a hugely experienced Rails programmer and this code is  
from a book (Build your own RoR Web Applications by Patrick Lenz):  
I''ve checked my code against the book and the code archive.

Any help much appreciated.







--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Ruby on Rails: Talk" group.
To post to this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---