So confused -- logging in

rubyonrails-talk
1

I've spent hours on this, and I can't figure it out. I'm trying to create a simple login system. Here's my accounts controller.

class AccountsController < ApplicationController   # ssl_required :login

  def login     if !(params[:username] and params[:password])       flash[:error] = "Username or password cannot be blank."       redirect_to :action => :index       return     end

    username = params[:username]     hashed_password = "hello" #Account.hash(params[:password])

    account = Account.find_by_username_and_hashed_password(username, hashed_password)

    if account == nil       flash[:error] = "Incorrect username or password."       redirect_to :action => :index       return     end

    session[:user_id] = account.id     redirect_to :controller => :home   end

  def logout     session[:user_id] = nil     flash[:notice] = "You have logged out."     redirect_to :controller => :home   end end

The logout function works fine. The first part of the login function, the part that tests to make sure that a username and password are present, works fine as well. However, if I pass username and password parameters to the function (regardless if they correspond to a real account or not), everything blows up in my face. In fact, my whole application permanently crashes until I run "rake db:sessions:clear". Even if I restart mongrel and Apache, my application still doesn't work until the sessions are cleaned out. My Account.hash and Account.find_by_username_and_hashed_password functions both work fine, and I tried turning them off. No luck.

Any ideas?

Oh, and the errors I get in the mongrel console are:

** Starting Mongrel listening at 0.0.0.0:3000 ** Starting Rails with development environment... ** Rails loaded. ** Loading any Rails specific GemPlugins ** Signals ready. INT => stop (no restart). ** Mongrel available at 0.0.0.0:3000 ** Use CTRL-C to stop. Sat Nov 10 13:26:13 -0500 2007: Error calling Dispatcher.dispatch #<ArgumentErro r: wrong number of arguments (0 for 1)> C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.5/lib/ active_record/ba se.rb:1318:in `hash' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.5/lib/ active_record/ba se.rb:1318:in `' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.5/lib/ active_record/ba se.rb:1318:in `subclasses' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.5/lib/ active_record/ba se.rb:1319:in `subclasses' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.5/lib/ action_controller/ routing.rb:351:in `inject' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.5/lib/ active_record/ba se.rb:1319:in `each' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.5/lib/ active_record/ba se.rb:1319:in `inject' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.5/lib/ active_record/ba se.rb:1319:in `subclasses' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.5/lib/ active_record/ba se.rb:280:in `reset_subclasses' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.2.5/lib/dispatcher.rb: 57:in `res et_application!' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.2.5/lib/dispatcher.rb: 115:in `re set_after_dispatch' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.2.5/lib/dispatcher.rb: 50:in `dis patch' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel/rails. rb:78:in `process' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel/rails. rb:76:in `synchronize' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel/rails. rb:76:in `process' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel.rb:618 :in `process_client' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel.rb:617 :in `each' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel.rb:617 :in `process_client' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel.rb:736 :in `run' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel.rb:736 :in `initialize' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel.rb:736 :in `new' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel.rb:736 :in `run' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel.rb:720 :in `initialize' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel.rb:720 :in `new' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel.rb:720 :in `run' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel/config urator.rb:271:in `run' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel/config urator.rb:270:in `each' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel/config urator.rb:270:in `run' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/bin/ mongrel_rails: 127:in `run' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/lib/ mongrel/comman d.rb:211:in `run' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32/bin/ mongrel_rails: 243 C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/bin/mongrel_rails:16:in `load' C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/bin/mongrel_rails:16

Thanks!

2

I'm guessing that you haven't defined Account#hash

BUT DON"T DO THAT

Object#hash is a core ruby method which takes no arguments.

You should name the method something like Account#hash_password to avoid conflicting with it.

3

You should look at acts_as_authenticated. It takes care of all this
for you and is easy to extend.

-Bill

4

I've looked at "ask as authenticated", but I'm trying to do it the hard way so I learn along the way :slight_smile:

Interesting update: my accounts controller works on my web host, it just doesn't work with instant rails. Rather annoying, but I guess the problem isn't as serious as I first thought.

I'm thinking the problem might have something to do with this line:

Sat Nov 10 13:26:13 -0500 2007: Error calling Dispatcher.dispatch

On my web host, it's set up to run as a CGI application, which I will eventually migrate to fast CGI, but instant rails uses mongrel. Do you think that could be the problem?

Is there an easy way I can fix this so that it runs on my home computer using instant rails? Because I like to do my development on my home computer... but now it looks like I'll have to upload everything to my server and test it there.

On a side note, relating to "ask as authenticated", is there a good plug-in that makes it easy to authenticate using Google accounts? I found a plug-in called "acts as Google accounts", but the comments said it sucked.

And thanks Rick, I will change my "hash" function to another name.