* Database Authenticatable: encrypts and stores a password in the database to validate the authenticity of an user while signing in. The authentication can be done both through POST requests or HTTP Basic Authentication.
* Token Authenticatable: signs in an 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 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:
rails generate devise MODEL
Replace MODEL by the class name you want to add devise, like User, Admin, etc. This will create a model (if one does not exist) and configure it with default Devise modules. The generator will also create a migration file (if your ORM support them) and configure your routes. Continue reading this file to understand exactly what the generator produces and how to use it.
Devise ecosystem is growing solid day after day. If you just need a walkthrough about setting up Devise, this README will work great. But if you need more documentation and resources, please check both the wiki and rdoc:
* http://rdoc.info/projects/plataformatec/devise
* http://wiki.github.com/plataformatec/devise
Both links above are for Devise with Rails 3. 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.
Another great way to learn Devise are Ryan Bates' screencasts:
Finally, Devise also has several extensions built by the community. Don't forget to check them at the end of this README. If you want to write an extension on your own, you should also check Warden (http://github.com/hassox/warden), a Rack Authentication Framework which Devise depends on.
Options for configuring your routes include :class_name (to set the class for that route), :path_prefix, :path and :path_names, where the last two have the same meaning as in common routes. The available :path_names are:
This exactly what the devise generator produces for you: model, routes and migrations. Don't forget to run rake db:migrate and you are ready to go! But don't stop reading here, we still have a lot to tell you.
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:
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, trackable, lockable and timeoutable features and no confirmation or password-recovery features. Just follow these steps:
The devise method in your models also accepts some options to configure its modules. For example, you can choose which encryptor to use in database_authenticatable:
Besides :encryptor, you can define :pepper, :stretches, :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.
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 sometime 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:
However, 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".
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 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 such as Cucumber or Webrat. Instead, 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 these strategies, set the desired encryptor in the encryptor initializer config option. You might also need to rename your encrypted password and salt columns to match Devise's fields (encrypted_password and password_salt).
Devise supports ActiveRecord (by default) and Mongoid. We offer experimental Datamapper support (with the limitation that the Devise test suite does not run completely with Datamapper). To choose other ORM, you just need to configure it in the initializer file.
Devise also has extensions created by the community:
* http://github.com/scambra/devise_invitable adds support to Devise for sending invitations by email.
* http://github.com/grimen/devise_facebook_connectable adds support for Facebook Connect authentication, and optionally fetching user info from Facebook in the same step.
* http://github.com/joshk/devise_imapable adds support for imap based authentication, excellent for internal apps when an LDAP server isn't available.
Needless to say, security is extremely important to Devise. If you find yourself in a possible security issue with Devise, please go through the following steps, trying to reproduce the bug:
1) Look at the source code a bit to find out whether your assumptions are correct;
2) If possible, provide a way to reproduce the bug: a small app on Github or a step-by-step to reproduce;
3) E-mail us or send a Github private message instead of using the normal issues;
Being able to reproduce the bug is the first step to fix it. Thanks for your understanding.
