Rails model structure for users

Question

I\'m new to rails, and I\'m working on my second rails app.

The app will have different roles for users, but some users will have multiple roles.

Every user of t

Answer 1

You can look for gems Devise and CanCan. This pair is really powerful combination. This makes two models User and Role. In Role you can create new roles, without creating new models for them. Although it creates model Ability, here you can define access rules for roles.

Manual: http://www.tonyamoyal.com/2010/07/28/rails-authentication-with-devise-and-cancan-customizing-devise-controllers/

Here you can find Devise's and CanCan's sources and wikies:

https://github.com/plataformatec/devise

https://github.com/ryanb/cancan

My models looks like this:

Role.rb

class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_and_belongs_to_many :users
end

User.rb

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :accounts
  has_and_belongs_to_many :roles

  # Include default devise modules. Others available are:
  # :token_authenticatable, :confirmable, :lockable and :timeoutable
  devise :database_authenticatable,
         :recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable

  # Setup accessible (or protected) attributes for your model
  attr_accessible :email, :username, :password, :password_confirmation, :remember_me, :role_ids

  def role?(role)
    return !!self.roles.find_by_name(role.to_s.camelize)
  end

end

Ability.rb

class Ability
  include CanCan::Ability

  def initialize(user)
    user ||= User.new # guest user

    if user.role? :administrator
      can :manage, :all
    elsif user.role? :operator
      can :read, Account
      can :read, Server
    elsif user.role? :customer
      can :manage, Account
      can :read, Server
    end
  end
end

In the controller you must add only this two lines:

class YourController < ApplicationController
  before_filter :authenticate_user!
  load_and_authorize_resource

  ...

end