Basic misunderstanding of syntax i think

rubyonrails-talk
1

First of thank you for your patience. This is my first ruby project and i am slightly confused. The index page works fine.

<h1>Index</h1>

<p>         Welcome <%= h(session[:user_name]) %>

        <%= error_messages_for 'user' %> </p>

<% if session[:user_id] == nil %>

<% form_tag :controller => 'users', :action => 'login' do %>       <p>         <label for="name">Name:</label>         <%= text_field_tag :name, params[:name] %>       </p>

      <p>         <label for="password">Password:</label>         <%= password_field_tag :password, params[:password] %>       </p>

      <p>         <%= submit_tag "Login" %>       </p>     <% end %>

<% else %>

<%= button_to "logout", :controller => 'users', :action => 'logout' %>

<% end %>

and then when i go to /users/list_friends the following code displays fine

<h1>Your Friends Are</h1> <% if flash[:notice] -%>       <div id="notice"><%= flash[:notice] %></div>     <% end -%> <ul>   <% for user in @my_friends %>     <li>         <%= h(user.name) %>     </li>   <% end %> </ul>

Yet when i add the code from list friends to the index page it all falls over. I think i am missing some basic understanding of what is going on here. The code for the list friends is.

def list_friends

    if session[:user_id]      myuser = User.find(session[:user_id])      @my_friends = myuser.friends     else     flash[:notice] = "Please Login"     end

end

Thank you again for any help.

2

It looks like the problem you might be having is that you create an object, @my_friends, in your action list_friends. If you want to call this object on your index page, you would need to recreate it in the index action of your controller.

3

Is it possible for me to call the function from the index page? or will i have to put all the functions inside index?

thanks

james

4

You'll need to create @my_friends in the index action.

You might want to consider creating a current_user object across your application. Check out the acts_as_authenticated plugin (http:// technoweenie.stikipad.com/plugins/show/Acts+as+Authenticated), it has pretty much everything you'll need.

Regards Jake

5

Using Acts as Authenticated, you can set a before_filter on specific actions in your controller that checks if a user is logged in, and if not, it redirects them to a login page. That way you can take the logic for logging in out of your index page.

Then, you can simplify your actions to be something like

before_filter :login_required, :only => [:index, :list_friends] before_filter :get_friends, :only => [:index, :list_friends]

def index end

def list_friends end

protected

def get_friends   @my_friends = current_user.friends end

This is more the 'rails-way' because it is DRY - don't repeat yourself.

Regards

6

And, if you want to be even more DRY, extract the code for listing friends into a partial:

<ul>   <% for user in @my_friends %>     <li>         <%= h(user.name) %>     </li>   <% end %> </ul>

that you call on index and list_friends.

You can also put your flash notice:

<% if flash[:notice] -%>       <div id="notice"><%= flash[:notice] %></div> <% end -%>

into your view layout template.

7

Great! If you're just getting started with Rails, I highly recommend getting the book Agile Web Development with Rails.

I used it when I got started and it proves to be an invaluable resource.

8

Where would i define a current_user object so that it would be accessible across the application?

9

You can define it in your application controller, in /app/controllers/ application.rb, via a method like

    def current_user       @current_user ||= (session[:user] && User.find_by_id(session[:user])) || :false     end

Acts as Authenticated will set up current_user for you, and it's really easy to implement, there's a generate script that adds a file to your /lib folder. Even if you don't want to use it, it will give you a good idea of rails best practices for dealing with authentication.

You're right, Rails books sometimes seem out-of-date because the framework evolves pretty rapidly, but many of the same practices used in the 1.2 book are still in use today, in addition to new practices like greater emphasis on RESTful apps, sexy migrations, etc.