* Database Authenticatable: encrypts and stores a password in the database to validate the authenticity of a user while signing in. The authentication can be done both through POST requests or HTTP Basic Authentication.
* Token Authenticatable: signs in a user based on an authentication token (also known as "single access token"). The token can be given both through query string or HTTP Basic Authentication.
The Devise Wiki has lots of additional information about Devise including many "how-to" articles and answers to the most frequently asked questions. Please browse the Wiki after finishing this README:
If you discover a problem with Devise, we would like to know about it. However, we ask that you please review these guidelines before submitting a bug report:
If you found a security bug, do *NOT* use the GitHub issue tracker. Send email or a private GitHub message to the maintainers listed at the bottom of the README.
If you need to use Devise with Rails 2.3, you can always run "gem server" from the command line after you install the gem to access the old documentation.
There are a few example applications available on GitHub that demonstrate various features of Devise with different versions of Rails. You can view them here:
Our community has created a number of extensions that add functionality above and beyond what is included with Devise. You can view a list of available extensions and add your own here:
You will usually want to write tests for your changes. To run the test suite, go into Devise's top-level directory and run "bundle install" and "rake". For the tests to pass, you will need to have a MongoDB server (version 2.0 or newer) running on your system.
If you are building your first Rails application, we recommend you to *not* use Devise. Devise requires a good understanding of the Rails Framework. In such cases, we advise you to start a simple authentication system from scratch, today we have two resources:
The generator will install an initializer which describes ALL Devise's configuration options and you MUST take a look at it. When you are done, you are ready to add Devise to any of your models using the generator:
Replace MODEL by the class name used for the applications users, it's frequently 'User' but could also be 'Admin'. This will create a model (if one does not exist) and configure it with default Devise modules. Next, you'll usually run "rake db:migrate" as the generator will have created a migration file (if your ORM supports them). This generator also configures your config/routes.rb file to point to Devise controller.
Devise will create some helpers to use inside your controllers and views. To set up a controller with user authentication, just add this before_filter:
After signing in a user, confirming the account or updating the password, Devise will look for a scoped root path to redirect. Example: For a :user resource, it will use +user_root_path+ if it exists, otherwise default +root_path+ will be used. This means that you need to set the root inside your routes:
Finally, you need to set up default url options for the mailer in each environment. Here is the configuration for "config/environments/development.rb":
The devise method in your models also accepts some options to configure its modules. For example, you can choose the cost of the encryption algorithm with:
Besides :stretches, you can define :pepper, :encryptor, :confirm_within, :remember_for, :timeout_in, :unlock_in and other values. For details, see the initializer file that was created when you invoked the "devise:install" generator described above.
Devise allows you to set up as many roles as you want. For example, you may have a User model and also want an Admin model with just authentication and timeoutable features. If so, just follow these steps:
We built Devise to help you quickly develop an application that uses authentication. However, we don't want to be in your way when you need to customize it.
Since Devise is an engine, all its views are packaged inside the gem. These views will help you get started, but after some time you may want to change them. If this is the case, you just need to invoke the following generator, and it will copy all views to your application:
If you have more than one role in your application (such as "User" and "Admin"), you will notice that Devise uses the same views for all roles. Fortunately, Devise offers an easy way to customize views. All you need to do is set "config.scoped_views = true" inside "config/initializers/devise.rb".
After doing so, you will be able to have views based on the role like "users/sessions/new" and "admins/sessions/new". If no view is found within the scope, Devise will use the default view at "devise/sessions/new". You can also use the generator to generate scoped views:
Remember that Devise uses flash messages to let users know if sign in was successful or failed. Devise expects your application to call "flash[:notice]" and "flash[:alert]" as appropriate.
Devise also ships with default routes. If you need to customize them, you should probably be able to do it through the devise_for method. It accepts several options like :class_name, :path_prefix and so on, including the possibility to change path names for I18n:
If you have the need for more deep customization, for instance to also allow "/sign_in" besides "/users/sign_in", all you need to do is to create your routes normally and wrap them in a +devise_scope+ block in the router:
This way you tell devise to use the scope :user when "/sign_in" is accessed. Notice +devise_scope+ is also aliased as +as+ and you can also give a block to +devise_for+, resulting in the same behavior:
Take a look at our locale file to check all available messages. You may also be interested in one of the many translations that are available on our wiki:
Devise includes some tests helpers for functional specs. To use them, you just need to include Devise::TestHelpers in your test class and use the sign_in and sign_out method. Such methods have the same signature as in controllers:
If you're using RSpec and want the helpers automatically included within all +describe+ blocks, add a file called spec/support/devise.rb with the following contents:
Do not use such helpers for integration tests such as Cucumber or Webrat. Instead, fill in the form or explicitly set the user in session. For more tips, check the wiki (https://wiki.github.com/plataformatec/devise).
Devise implements encryption strategies for Clearance, Authlogic and Restful-Authentication. To make use of these strategies, you need set the desired encryptor in the encryptor initializer config option and add :encryptable to your model. You might also need to rename your encrypted password and salt columns to match Devise's fields (encrypted_password and password_salt).
Devise is based on Warden, which is a general Rack authentication framework created by Daniel Neighman. We encourage you to read more about Warden here:
