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

This is the basic setup, for the declarative authorization gem, I use. But you could just use this as is without the gem, if your authorization requirements aren't more than asking the kind of Roles the User has.

It does require a roles table, and such, so that might not really be your fancy.

class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :roles

  def role_symbols
    roles.map { |r| r.title.to_sym }
  end

  def admin?
    has_role?(:admin)
  end
  # include more role booleans or write some ruby magic to be DRY
  # ...

  def has_role?(r)
    role_symbols.include?(r.to_sym)
  end
end

# give or take
user = User.new
user.roles << Role.new :title => "admin"
user.roles << Role.new :title => "artist"

user.role_symbols # => [:admin, :artist]
user.admin? # => true
user.has_role?(:artist) # => true