Rails Devise Pundit

Rails 5.0 example application that provides user management, authentication, and authorization. The application shows how to integrate:

Devise for user management and authentication
Pundit for authorization
Bootstrap or Foundation front-end frameworks

Use this example application as a starter app for your own web applications. For a complete explanation of the code, see the tutorials:

You can build this application in only a few minutes using the Rails Composer tool, choosing either a Bootstrap or Foundation front-end framework, as well as many other options, such as Haml or Slim.

There’s also a helpful article on Rails Authorization comparing CanCan and Pundit gems, and looking at simple role-based authorization.

From the RailsApps Project

The RailsApps open source project offers starter applications and tutorials for Rails developers. Generate the applications with the Rails Composer tool.

All the code is explained in the Capstone Rails Tutorials. You can purchase the Capstone Rails Tutorials to support the project.

If You Are New to Rails

If you’re new to Rails, see What is Ruby on Rails?, the book Learn Ruby on Rails, and recommendations for a Rails tutorial.

What Is Implemented — and What Is Not

This application extends the rails-devise example application to add authorization with Pundit. The rails-devise example application provides:

Home page
Navigation bar
Sign up (create account)
Login
“Forgot password?” feature
“Remember me” (stay logged in) feature
Edit account (edit user profile)
List of users

This rails-devise-pundit example application adds authorization with Pundit, showing how to implement user roles, and limit access to pages based on user role. With this application:

an admin can see a list of users
an admin can change a user’s role
an ordinary user can’t see a list of users
an ordinary user can’t change their role
an ordinary user can’t see (or edit) another user’s profile
an ordinary user can see (and edit) their own user profile

After examining the example application, you’ll be able to implement access control in your own applications.

Database

The application requires a database. The example application uses SQLite with Rails ActiveRecord. You can easily substitute PostgreSQL, MySQL, or other databases.

Front-end Framework

The example application (here in the GitHub repository) integrates Bootstrap for a navigation bar and flash messages. The rails_layout gem is included so you can switch to the Foundation front-end framework.

Accounts You Will Need

Devise provides a “Forgot Password?” feature that resets a password and sends instructions to the user. You’ll need an email service provider to send email from the application. You can use Gmail during development. You can get a free Gmail account if you don’t already have one. For production, Gmail is not robust. Use transactional email services, such as Mandrill, to send email in production. See the article Send Email with Rails for more information.

We provide instructions to deploy the application to Heroku which provides Rails application hosting. It costs nothing to set up a Heroku account and deploy as many applications as you want. To deploy an app to Heroku, you must have a Heroku account. Visit Heroku to set up an account.

Dependencies

Before generating your application, you will need:

The Ruby language – version 2.3.1
The Rails gem – version 5.0

See the article Installing Rails for instructions about setting up Rails and your development environment.

Getting the Application

Local

You have several options for getting the code on your own machine. You can fork, clone, or generate.

Fork

If you’d like to add features (or bug fixes) to improve the example application, you can fork the GitHub repo and make pull requests. Your code contributions are welcome!

Clone

If you want to copy and customize the app with changes that are only useful for your own project, you can clone the GitHub repo. You’ll need to search-and-replace the project name throughout the application. You probably should generate the app instead (see below). To clone:

$ git clone git://github.com/RailsApps/rails-devise-pundit.git

You’ll need git on your machine. See Rails and Git.

Generate

If you want to use the project as a starter application, use the Rails Composer tool to generate a new version of the example app. You’ll be able to give it your own project name when you generate the app. Generating the application gives you additional options.

To build the example application, Rails 5.0 must be installed in your development environment. Run the command:

$ rails new rails-devise-pundit -m https://raw.github.com/RailsApps/rails-composer/master/composer.rb

The $ character indicates a shell prompt; don’t include it when you run the command.

This creates a new Rails app named rails-devise-pundit on your computer. You can use a different name if you wish.

You’ll see a prompt:

option  Build a starter application?
    1)  Build a RailsApps example application
    2)  Contributed applications
    3)  Custom application

Enter “1” to select Build a RailsApps example application. You’ll see a prompt:

option  Choose a starter application.
    1)  learn-rails
    2)  rails-bootstrap
    3)  rails-foundation
    4)  rails-mailinglist-activejob
    5)  rails-omniauth
    6)  rails-devise
    7)  rails-devise-roles
    8)  rails-devise-pundit
    9)  rails-signup-download
   10)  rails-stripe-checkout

Choose rails-devise-pundit. The Rails Composer tool may give you other options (other applications may have been added since these notes were written).

The application generator template will ask you for additional preferences:

 question  Web server for development?
       1)  WEBrick (default)
       2)  Thin
       3)  Unicorn
       4)  Puma
       5)  Phusion Passenger (Apache/Nginx)
       6)  Phusion Passenger (Standalone)
 question  Web server for production?
       1)  Same as development
       2)  Thin
       3)  Unicorn
       4)  Puma
       5)  Phusion Passenger (Apache/Nginx)
       6)  Phusion Passenger (Standalone)
 question  Database used in development?
       1)  SQLite
       2)  PostgreSQL
       3)  MySQL
 question  Template engine?
       1)  ERB
       2)  Haml
       3)  Slim
 question  Test framework?
       1)  None
       2)  RSpec with Capybara
 question  Front-end framework?
       1)  None
       2)  Twitter Bootstrap 3.3
       3)  Twitter Bootstrap 2.3
       4)  Zurb Foundation 5.5
       5)  Zurb Foundation 4.0
       6)  Simple CSS
    setup  The Devise 'forgot password' feature requires email.
 question  Add support for sending email?
       1)  None
       2)  Gmail
       3)  SMTP
       4)  SendGrid
       5)  Mandrill
 question  Devise modules?
       1)  Devise with default modules
       2)  Devise with Confirmable module
 question  Use a form builder gem?
       1)  None
       2)  SimpleForm
   extras  Set a robots.txt file to ban spiders? (y/n)
   extras  Create a GitHub repository? (y/n)
   extras  Use or create a project-specific rvm gemset? (y/n)

Web Servers

If you plan to deploy to Heroku, select Unicorn as your production webserver. Unicorn is recommended by Heroku.

Database

Use SQLite for development on Mac or Linux, unless you already have PostgreSQL installed locally. Use PostgreSQL if you plan to deploy to Heroku. You can easily change the database later if you select SQLite to start.

Template Engine

The example application uses the default “ERB” Rails template engine. Optionally, you can use another template engine, such as Haml or Slim. See instructions for Haml and Rails.

Testing

If you are a beginner, select “None.”

Front-end Framework

The example in the GitHub repository was built with the Bootstrap 3 front-end framework. Use Zurb Foundation 5.5 if you like. Choosing either Bootstrap or Foundation will automatically install views with attractive styling.

Email

Choose Gmail for development if you already have a Gmail account. Choose SendGrid or Mandrill for production if your site will be heavily used.

Devise Modules

The example in the GitHub repository uses Devise with default modules.

Other Choices

Set a robots.txt file to ban spiders if you want to keep your new site out of Google search results.

If you choose to create a GitHub repository, the generator will prompt you for a GitHub username and password.

It is a good idea to use RVM, the Ruby Version Manager, and create a project-specific rvm gemset (not available on Windows). See Installing Rails.

Troubleshooting

If you get an error “OpenSSL certificate verify failed” or “Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError: SSL_connect” see the article OpenSSL errors and Rails.

Edit the README

If you’re storing the app in a GitHub repository, please edit the README files to add a description of the app and your contact info. If you don’t change the README, people will think I am the author of your version of the application.

Getting Started

See the article Installing Rails to make sure your development environment is prepared properly.

Use RVM

I recommend using rvm, the Ruby Version Manager, to create a project-specific gemset for the application. If you generate the application with the Rails Composer tool, you can create a project-specific gemset.

Gems

Here are the gems used by the application:

Devise for authentication and user management
Pundit for authorization

These gems make development easier:

better_errors – helps when things go wrong
quiet_assets – suppresses distracting messages in the log
rails_layout – generates files for an application layout

Your choice of front-end framework:

bootstrap-sass – Bootstrap for CSS and JavaScript
foundation-rails – Zurb Foundation for CSS and JavaScript

Install the Required Gems

If you used the Rails Composer tool to generate the example app, the application template script has already run the bundle install command.

If not, you should run the bundle install command to install the required gems on your computer:

$ bundle install

You can check which gems are installed on your computer with:

$ gem list

Keep in mind that you have installed these gems locally. When you deploy the app to another server, the same gems (and versions) must be available.

Front-end Framework

If you generate the application using the Rails Composer tool, you have the option to install either Bootstrap or Foundation. The folder app/views/devise/ will contain attractive view files that override the views provided in the Devise gem.

Changing the Front-end Framework

The version of the application in the repository includes Bootstrap. If you wish to install Foundation instead, use the rails_layout gem to generate new files. First add a gem to the Gemfile:

gem 'foundation-rails'

Use Bundler to install the gem:

$ bundle install

To create layout files for use with Zurb Foundation 5.5:

$ rails generate layout:install foundation5

The “layout:devise” Command

Devise provides a utility command rails generate devise:views. The Devise command creates view files for signup, login, and related features. However, the views generated by Devise lack CSS styling.

Use the RailsLayout gem to generate Devise views with styling for Bootstrap or Foundation.

$ rails generate layout:devise bootstrap3
$ rails generate layout:devise foundation5

The command will create these files:

app/views/devise/sessions/new.html.erb
app/views/devise/passwords/new.html.erb
app/views/devise/registrations/edit.html.erb
app/views/devise/registrations/new.html.erb

Additionally, the command will update a file to append Sass mixins to accommodate Bootstrap or Foundation:

app/assets/stylesheets/framework_and_overrides.css.scss

The Sass mixins allow any view to be used with either Bootstrap or Foundation (so we don’t have to maintain separate views for each front-end framework).

Configuration File

To consolidate configuration settings in a single location, we store credentials in the config/secrets.yml file. To keep your credentials private, use Unix environment variables to set your credentials. See the article Rails Environment Variables for more information.

Add your credentials to the file config/secrets.yml:

# Make sure the secrets in this file are kept private
# if you're sharing your code publicly.

development:
  admin_name: First User
  admin_email: [email protected]
  admin_password: changeme
  email_provider_username: <%= ENV["GMAIL_USERNAME"] %>
  email_provider_password: <%= ENV["GMAIL_PASSWORD"] %>
  domain_name: example.com
  secret_key_base: very_long_random_string

test:
  secret_key_base: very_long_random_string

# Do not keep production secrets in the repository,
# instead read values from the environment.
production:
  admin_name: <%= ENV["ADMIN_NAME"] %>
  admin_email: <%= ENV["ADMIN_EMAIL"] %>
  admin_password: <%= ENV["ADMIN_PASSWORD"] %>
  email_provider_username: <%= ENV["GMAIL_USERNAME"] %>
  email_provider_password: <%= ENV["GMAIL_PASSWORD"] %>
  domain_name: <%= ENV["DOMAIN_NAME"] %>
  secret_key_base: <%= ENV["SECRET_KEY_BASE"] %>

All configuration values in the config/secrets.yml file are available anywhere in the application as variables. For example, Rails.application.secrets.email_provider_username will return the string set in the Unix environment variable GMAIL_USERNAME.

For the Gmail username and password, enter the credentials you use to log in to Gmail when you check your inbox. See the article Send Email with Rails if you are using Google two factor authentication.

The values for admin_email and admin_password are used when the database is seeded. You will be able to log in to the application with these credentials. Note that it’s not necessary to personalize the config/secrets.yml file before you deploy your app. You can deploy the app with an example user and then use the application’s “Edit Account” feature to change email address and password after you log in. Use this feature to log in as an administrator and change the email and password to your own.

The variable domain_name is used for sending email. You can use example.com in development. If you already have a custom domain name you’ll use when you deploy the application, you can set domain_name. If you deploy the application to Heroku, you’ll set domain_name with the unique name you’ve given your application on Heroku. You’ll have to wait until you deploy to know the name you’ll use on Heroku.

If you don’t want to use Unix environment variables, you can set each value directly in the config/secrets.yml file. The file must be in your git repository when you deploy to Heroku. However, you shouldn’t save the file to a public GitHub repository where other people can see your credentials.

Roles

Roles are defined in the app/models/User.rb file (the User model).

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  .
  .
  .
  enum role: [:user, :vip, :admin]
  after_initialize :set_default_role, :if => :new_record?

  def set_default_role
    self.role ||= :user
  end

end

You can change the available roles by changing the array [:user, :vip, :admin].

The application uses the ActiveRecord enum method to manage roles. ActiveRecord provides convenient methods to query the role attribute:

user.admin! # sets the role to "admin"
user.admin? # => true
user.role  # => "admin"

See documentation for ActiveRecord::Enum for details.

Database Seed File

The db/seeds.rb file initializes the database with default values.

# This file should contain all the record creation needed to seed the database with its default values.
# The data can then be loaded with the rails db:seed (or created alongside the db with db:setup).
#
# Examples:
#
#   cities = City.create([{ name: 'Chicago' }, { name: 'Copenhagen' }])
#   Mayor.create(name: 'Emanuel', city: cities.first)
user = CreateAdminService.new.call
puts 'CREATED ADMIN USER: ' << user.email

CreateAdminService is a service object that obtains admin_email and admin_password values from the config/secrets.yml file. You can examine the file app/services/create_admin_service.rb to see how a new user is created.

Set the Database

If you’ve used the Rails Composer tool to generate the application, the database is already set up with rails db:migrate and rails db:seed.

If you’ve cloned the repo, prepare the database and add the default user to the database by running the commands:

$ rails db:migrate
$ rails db:seed

Use rails db:reset if you want to empty and reseed the database.

Change your Application’s Secret Token

If you’ve used the Rails Composer tool to generate the application, the application’s secret token will be unique, just as with any Rails application generated with the rails new command.

However, if you’ve cloned the application directly from GitHub, it is crucial that you change the application’s secret token before deploying your application in production mode. Otherwise, people could change their session information, and potentially access your site without permission. Your secret token should be at least 30 characters long and completely random.

Get a unique secret token:

rails secret

Edit the config/secrets.yml file to change the secret token.

Test the App

You can check that your application runs properly by entering the command:

$ rails server

To see your application in action, open a browser window and navigate to http://localhost:3000/.

You should see a home page with a navigation bar.

You should be able to click the navigation links for “Log in” and “Sign up.”

Log in with the credentials in the config/secrets.yml file. You’ll see a new navigation link for “Users.” Click the “Users” link and you’ll see a list of users (initially, just yourself). Log out and create a new account with the “Sign up” navigation link.

Log in with the first account (the admin account). Click the “Users” link. You’ll see both users. Change the role for the second user.

You’ve seen a simple demonstration of access control.

Stop the server with Control-C. If you test the app by starting the web server and then leave the server running while you install new gems, you’ll have to restart the server to see any changes. The same is true for changes to configuration files in the config folder. This can be confusing to new Rails developers because you can change files in the app folders without restarting the server. Stop the server each time after testing and you will avoid this issue.

RSpec Test Suite

The application contains a suite of RSpec tests. To run:

$ rspec

Deploy to Heroku

Heroku provides low cost, easily configured Rails application hosting.

From the Command Line

You can deploy from the command line.

$ git push origin master

If you’ve set configuration values in the config/secrets.yml file, you’ll need to set them as Heroku environment variables. You can set Heroku environment variables directly with heroku config:add. For example:

$ heroku config:add ADMIN_NAME='First User'
$ heroku config:add ADMIN_EMAIL='[email protected]' ADMIN_PASSWORD='changeme'
$ heroku config:add GMAIL_USERNAME='[email protected]' GMAIL_PASSWORD='secret'
$ heroku config:add DOMAIN_NAME='example.com'

See the Tutorial for Rails on Heroku for details.

Troubleshooting

Problems? Check the issues.

Error “Undefined method `authorize’”

If you change the Pundit policy file, you may get the error, “Undefined method `authorize’.”

The error may be due to Spring, the Rails application preloader. Spring keeps your application running in the background (the intent is to eliminate time needed to start the application during development). You may think you’ve restarted your application after making changes, but Spring has kept the application running. You can check if Spring is running:

$ bin/spring status

When you get the error “Undefined method `authorize’,” stop Spring and the problem will be resolved:

$ bin/spring stop

Issues

Please create a GitHub issue if you identify any problems or have suggestions for improvements.

Where to Get Help

Your best source for help with problems is Stack Overflow. Your issue may have been encountered and addressed by others.

Use the tag “railsapps” on Stack Overflow for extra attention.

Contributing

If you make improvements to this application, please share with others.

Send the author a message, create an issue, or fork the project and submit a pull request.

If you add functionality to this application, create an alternative implementation, or build an application that is similar, please contact me and I’ll add a note to the README so that others can find your work.

Credits

Special thanks to Rakesh Jha for code contributions.

Daniel Kehoe implemented the application and wrote the tutorial.

Is the app useful to you? Follow the project on Twitter: @rails_apps
and tweet some praise. I’d love to know you were helped out by what I’ve put together.

MIT License

Useful Links

Getting Started	Articles	Tutorials
Ruby on Rails	Analytics for Rails	Rails Bootstrap
What is Ruby on Rails?	Heroku and Rails	Rails Foundation
Learn Ruby on Rails	JavaScript and Rails	RSpec Tutorial
Rails Tutorial	Rails Environment Variables	Rails Devise Tutorial
Ruby on Rails Tutorial for Beginners	Git and GitHub with Rails	Devise RSpec
Install Ruby on Rails	Send Email with Rails	Devise Bootstrap
Install Ruby on Rails – Mac OS X	Haml and Rails	Rails Membership Site with Stripe
Install Ruby on Rails – Ubuntu	Rails Application Layout	Rails Subscription Site with Recurly
Ruby on Rails – Nitrous.io	HTML5 Boilerplate for Rails	Startup Prelaunch Signup Application
Update Rails	Example Gemfiles for Rails
Rails Composer	Rails Application Templates
Rails Examples	Rails Product Planning
Rails Starter Apps	Rails Project Management

RailsApps/rails-devise-pundit

RailsApps

Reviews

Repository Details

Rails Devise Pundit

From the RailsApps Project

If You Are New to Rails

What Is Implemented — and What Is Not

Database

Front-end Framework

Similar Examples and Tutorials

Accounts You Will Need

Dependencies

Getting the Application

Local

Fork

Clone

Generate

Web Servers

Database

Template Engine

Testing

Front-end Framework

Email

Devise Modules

Other Choices

Troubleshooting

Edit the README

Getting Started

Use RVM

Gems

Install the Required Gems

Front-end Framework

Changing the Front-end Framework

The “layout:devise” Command

Configuration File

Roles

Database Seed File

Set the Database

Change your Application’s Secret Token

Test the App

RSpec Test Suite

Deploy to Heroku

From the Command Line

Troubleshooting

Error “Undefined method `authorize’”

Issues

Where to Get Help

Contributing

Credits

MIT License

Useful Links

More Repositories