when they do I use redirect :back as an easy way to get back to the page
they were viewing before they attempted to log in.
Problem I am having is that if they make an error when logging in and I
redirect them back the username won't show up because of the redirect.
Is there an Rails way of getting the username to show up in the form so
they can correct any typos.
The password field being empty works well in this case.
redirect :back and the 'back button' aren't the same thing. The former is just a convenient shortcut for sending the user to another page via an HTTP redirect.
That said, sometimes the back button doesn't save form fields either.
Store the username in a cookie and use some javascript to prefill the login box if that cookie exists.
