• Registered: 2012-03-05
  • Posts: 95

Topic: Any recommendations for an authentication plugin?

I've been checking out Devise and Restful-Authentication. It seems like restful-authentication has been popular for a while, and that Devise is also popular, although it seems like it's more of a newcomer compared to restful-auth. So I'd like to find out what people are recommending for new projects, and if these two options are still considered to be good choices.

Also, I'd like to have the flexibility to have multiple tiers in each account, meaning that a company can set up an account and add multiple users, each with their own login credentials. I'm still trying to figure out if I can make this work with Devise or restful-auth.

Also, there will be an annual subscription fee that's associated with the parent/company account, so I'd also like to hear about a good subscription plugin smile

  • From: Rhode Island, United States
  • Registered: 2009-02-27
  • Posts: 109

Re: Any recommendations for an authentication plugin?

I would recommend joining RailsCasts and watching episode #250 Authentication from Scratch. I mostly followed that tutorial, and modified it to work for me. Rails now has a lot of authentication logic built in, so your code would be minimal and easily movable from project to project. I'm thinking of making a generator for myself to make it even easier for myself.

Learning rails, one day at a time.

http://keilmiller.com

tuscanidream's Website

  • From: Los Angeles CA
  • Registered: 2008-03-17
  • Posts: 1,701

Re: Any recommendations for an authentication plugin?

I'd recommend devise.  First, it's very flexible, as you requested.  Second,  it's such a crucial bit of functionality,   'rolling your own'  might not be wise,  especially when sensitive information is involved,  or you would loose revenues if your home grown solution isn't rock solid.  Third, it can configured to do your tiering,  i.e. have multiple companies, and each company can then manage their own subset of users.

Devise is probably one of the more involved and sophisticated gems I've run across in rails development.  It's probably not the best choice if you are new to rails and have never done any kind of authentication before using rails.   At the very least, if you consider using devise,  watch the rails cast the previous posted mentioned,  so you are familiar with the concepts,  devise has no training wheels!!!!!

Joe got a job, on the day shift, at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, arrogantly twisting the sterile canvas snout of a fully charged icing anointment utensil.
  • Registered: 2012-03-05
  • Posts: 95

Re: Any recommendations for an authentication plugin?

I signed up for RailsCasts Pro, and I've been watching several of the videos. Based on what I've learned from RailsCasts and from Hart's book, I'm close to having a basic authentication system set up. However, one major feature that I'm wanting, but have yet to find addressed by Hartl or RailsCasts, is email verification, where the user must receive and respond to an email in order to complete registration. I can probably piece it together based on what I'm learning, but it would be great to see an actual example.
Regarding Device, I've been planning to take a look at it, but would rather roll my own if I can. That option is still on the table if I get stuck.