Adding role's field to users

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi,

(Using Rails 4.0.1, Ruby 1.9.3, latest devise and cancan gems. sqlite db for local development)

I am a rookie, setting up website and was adding roles(using cancan gem) to my users table. Everything works great, except when I select a role for a user it is not getting saved. The user gets saved/created OK but it never updates/ remembers any roles assigned to the user.

I was following the advice given here(Many roles per user). Any help or advice is most appreciated…

https://github.com/ryanb/cancan/wiki/role-based-authorization

Here is my users form…

<%= form_for(@user) do |f| %>

<%= f.label :email %>

<%= f.text_field :email %>

<% if @current_method == “new” %>

<%= f.label :password %>

<%= f.password_field :password %>

<%= f.label :password_confirmation %>

<%= f.password_field :password_confirmation %>

<% end %>

<% for role in User::ROLES %>

<%= check_box_tag “user[roles][#{role}]”, role, @user.roles.include?(role), {:name => “user[roles]”}%>

<%= label_tag “user_roles_#{role}”, role.humanize %>

<% end %>

<%= hidden_field_tag “user[roles]”, “” %>

<%= f.submit %>

<% end %>

/app/model/user.rb

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

ROLES = %w[admin blog_author]

def roles=(roles)

self.roles_mask = (roles & ROLES).map { |r| 2**ROLES.index(r) }.inject(0, :+)

end

def roles

ROLES.reject do |r|

((roles_mask.to_i || 0) & 2**ROLES.index(r)).zero?

end

end

def is?(role)

roles.include?(role.to_s)

end

Include default devise modules. Others available are:

:confirmable, :lockable, :timeoutable and :omniauthable

devise :database_authenticatable, :registerable, :recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable

end

2

Hi,

(Using Rails 4.0.1, Ruby 1.9.3, latest devise and cancan gems. sqlite db for local development)

Just a guess here -- have you updated your strong parameters declaration in the users_controller to include the roles field?

Walter

3

Hi Walter,

Thanks for reply.

Yes I have added in roles, but perhaps I am doing it wrong? Here is my users controller for creating and updating…

def create

@user = User.new(params[:user].permit(:email, :password, :roles))

authorize! :manage, @users

respond_to do |format|

if @user.save

format.html { redirect_to(@user, :notice => ‘User was successfully created.’) }

format.xml { render :xml => @user, :status => :created, :location => @user }

else

format.html { render :action => “new” }

format.xml { render :xml => @user.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }

end

end

end

PUT /users/1

PUT /users/1.xml

def update

@user = User.find(params[:id])

respond_to do |format|

if @user.update(params[:user].permit(:email, :password, :roles))

format.html { redirect_to(@user, :notice => ‘User was successfully updated.’) }

format.xml { head :ok }

else

format.html { render :action => “edit” }

format.xml { render :xml => @user.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }

end

end

end

4

Aha. You have a method called roles, but you're storing this in roles_mask? Which is a string? You should try adding roles_mask in the strong parameters, I think.

Walter

5

Also, watch your console as you update, and see if there's a warning about illegal attributes not being saved.

Walter

6

Ah yes, in console I have a line(when creating a user) saying…

Unpermitted parameters: password_confirmation, roles

I tried…

def create

@user = User.new(params[:user].permit(:id, :email, :password, :roles_mask))

…etc…

and…

def create

@user = User.new(params[:user].permit(:id, :email, :password, :roles_mask[:roles]))

and…

def create

@user = User.new(params[:user].permit(:id, :email, :password, :roles))

But none save the roles. The roles_mask col in the users table is an integer. It explains the process in the link mentioned on my first post. Using a “bitmask”.

7

Okay, try this (just to see if it saves at all):

  params[:user].permit!

That turns off strong parameters entirely, so let's see if your value is getting saved.

Walter

8

Yes! That works. Thanks Walter.

(code now…)

def create

@user = User.new(params[:user].permit!)

9

Okay, so now you know that strong parameters is the problem. Go into your schema, copy the entire table definition, and paste it here. This will be easy to fix, just have to see what the actual column name is that you need to whitelist.

Don't just leave your controller like this, you are not safe.

Walter

10

Just the users table, “role_mask” the one we want? Here is the users from schema.rb

create_table “users”, force: true do |t|

t.string “email”, default: “”, null: false

t.string “encrypted_password”, default: “”, null: false

t.string “reset_password_token”

t.datetime “reset_password_sent_at”

t.datetime “remember_created_at”

t.integer “sign_in_count”, default: 0, null: false

t.datetime “current_sign_in_at”

t.datetime “last_sign_in_at”

t.string “current_sign_in_ip”

t.string “last_sign_in_ip”

t.datetime “created_at”

t.datetime “updated_at”

t.integer “roles_mask”

end

11

Okay, try this:

    @user = User.new(params[:user].permit(:id, :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :roles))

And if that doesn't do it, then I need to see the raw parameters from your form submission (they will be in your console).

Walter

12

Hi Phillip,

If your roles param is an array, you should tell strong parameters explicitly like this:

params[:user].permit(:id, :email, :password, :roles => )

Excepted from the doc:

To declare that the value in params must be an array of permitted scalar values map the key to an empty array:

params.permit(:id => [])
13

It looked to me as though he was saving it as a bit mask, though. Does the strong parameters apply when accepting the input or saving to the persistence layer?

Walter

14

Yes that has it working now! The world is beautiful again.

Walter, Derrick, I can get phase one up and running thanks to this. Thanks a million guys!

15

It looked to me as though he was saving it as a bit mask, though. Does the strong parameters apply when accepting the input or saving to the persistence layer?

Strong parameters filter the input before it hits the model object - how you persist it is irrelevant.

Fred

16

It looked to me as though he was saving it as a bit mask, though. Does the strong parameters apply when accepting the input or saving to the persistence layer?

Strong parameters filter the input before it hits the model object - how you persist it is irrelevant.

Fred

Thanks! That clears up a lingering question for me.

Walter