:except not working in before_filter in application controller. Routing problem?

Question

I have a before_filter in my application controller to keep a user\'s session alive (and log them out if a time out has been reached). This should be called on every action

Answer 1

The :except option takes action names, not url parts. Here's what you should do instead:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  before_filter :update_activity_time
  ...
end

Then, in sessions_controller.rb:

class SessionsController < ApplicationController
  skip_before_filter :update_activity_time, :only => [:new, :destroy]
  ...
end

You don't want to put the :except in ApplicationController because, if you did, the new and destroy actions for every one of your app's controllers wouldn't update the activity time.