Devise is based on Warden (http://github.com/hassox/warden), a Rack Authentication Framework so you need to install it as a gem. Please ensure you have it installed in order to use devise (see installation below).
This is a walkthrough with all steps you need to setup a devise resource, including model, migration, route files, and optional configuration. You can also check out the *Generators* section below to help you start.
Remember that Devise don't rely on _attr_accessible_ or _attr_protected_ inside its modules, so be sure to setup what attributes are accessible or protected in your model.
In addition to :except, you can provide :pepper, :stretches, :encryptor, :authentication_keys, :confirm_within, :remember_for and :timeout as options to devise method.
All those options are described in "config/initializers/devise.rb", which is generated when you invoke `ruby script/generate devise_install` in your application root.
There are also some options available for configuring your routes, as :class_name (to set the class for that route), :as and :path_names, where the last two have the same meaning as in common routes. The available :path_names are:
Devise is gonna create some helpers to use inside your controllers and views. To setup a controller that needs user authentication, just add this before_filter:
After signing in a user, confirming it's account or updating it's 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. To do it so, you need to create e default root inside your routes for your application:
Finally, if you are using confirmable or recoverable, you also need to setup default url options for the mailer in each environment. Here's is the configuration for config/environments/development.rb:
By default devise will use the same views for all scopes/roles you have. But what if you need so different views to each of them? Devise also has an easy way to accomplish it: just setup config,scoped_views to true inside your devise config file, and you will be able to have views based on scope like 'sessions/users/new' and 'sessions/admin/new'. If no view is found within the scope, Devise will fallback to the default view.
Devise let's you setup as many roles as you want, so let's say you already have this User model and also want an Admin model with just authentication, trackable and timeoutable stuff and none of confirmation or password recovery. Just follow the same steps:
A model configured with all devise modules and attr_accessible for default fields will be created. The generator will also create the migration and configure your routes for devise.
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:
You can include the Devise Test Helpers in all of your tests by adding the following to the bottom of your test/test_helper.rb or spec/spec_helper.rb file:
Do not use such helpers for integration tests like Cucumber, Webrat... Just fill in the form or explicitly set the user in session. For more tips, check the wiki (http://wiki.github.com/plataformatec/devise).
Devise implements encryption strategies for Clearance, Authlogic and Restful-Authentication. To make use of it set the desired encryptor in the encryptor initializer config option. You might also need to rename your encrypted password and salt columns to match Devises's one (encrypted_password and password_salt).
