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https://github.com/jdtornow/challah

User authorization and session management in Rails.
https://github.com/jdtornow/challah

authentication rails ruby

Last synced: 20 days ago
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User authorization and session management in Rails.

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README 

        
# Challah



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Challah (pronounced HAH-lah) is a simple Rails authentication gem that provides users a way to authenticate with your app. Most of the functionality within the gem lives within a Rails engine and tries to stay out of the way of your app.



Challah doesn't provide any fancy controllers or views that clutter your app or force you to display information a certain way. That part is up to you. The functionality within Challah is designed to be a starting point for users and sign-ins you can tweak the rest to your app's needs.



## Requirements



* Ruby 2.5.0+

* Rails 5.2+



## Installation



In your `Gemfile`



```ruby

gem "challah"

```



## Set up



Once the gem has been set up and installed, run the following command to set up the database migrations:



```bash

rails challah:setup

```



This will copy over the necessary migrations to your app and migrate the database. You will be prompted to add the first user as the last step in this process.



### Manual set up



If you would prefer to handle these steps manually, you can do so by using these rake tasks instead:



```bash

rails generate challah

rails challah:unpack:user

rails db:migrate

```



### Creating users



Since Challah doesn't provide any controller and views for users there are a few handy rake tasks you can use to create new records.



Use the following task to create a new user:



```bash

# Creates a new User record

rails challah:users:create

```



## User Model



Challah provides the core `User` model for your app, and a database migration to go along with it. You can do anything you want with the model, just leave the `Challah::Userable` concern intact to keep Challah's standard user methods included.



A user is anyone that needs to be able to authenticate (sign in) to the application. Each user requires a first name, last name, email address, username, and password.



By default a user is marked as "active" and is able to log in to your application. If the active status column is toggled to `inactive`, then this user is no longer able to log in. The active status column can be used as a soft-delete function for users.



## Checking for a current user



The basic way to restrict functionality within your app is to require that someone authenticate (log in) before they can see it. From within your controllers and views you can call the `current_user?` method to determine if someone has authenticated. This method doesn't care about who the user is, or what it has access to, just that it has successfully authenticated and is a valid user.



For example, restrict the second list item to only users that have logged in:



```erb



```



Controllers can also be restricted using `before_action`:



```ruby

class WidgetsController < ApplicationController

  before_action :signin_required



  # ...

end

```



Or, you can call `restrict_to_authenticated` instead, which does the same thing:



```ruby

class WidgetsController < ApplicationController

  restrict_to_authenticated



  # ...

end

```



All normal Rails `before_action` options apply, so you can always limit this restriction to a specific action:



```ruby

class WidgetsController < ApplicationController

  restrict_to_authenticated only: [ :edit, :update, :destroy ]



  # ...

end

```



## Default Routes



By default, there are a few routes included with the Challah engine. These routes provide a basic method for a username and password sign in page. These routes are:



```text

GET   /sign-in      # => SessionsController#new

POST  /sign-in      # => SessionsController#create

GET   /sign-out     # => SessionsController#new

```



Feel free to override the `SessionsController` with something more appropriate for your app.



If you'd prefer to set up your own "sign in" and "sign out" actions, you can skip the inclusion of the default routes by adding the following line to an initializer file in your app:



```ruby

# in config/initializers/challah.rb

Challah.options[:skip_routes] = true

```



## Sign In Form



By default, the sign in form is tucked away within the Challah gem. If you'd like to customize the markup or functionality of the sign in form, you can unpack it into your app by running:



```bash

# Copy the sign in view into your app

rails challah:unpack:views

```



If necessary, the sessions controller which handles creating new sessions and signing users out can also be unpacked into your app. This is really only recommended if you need to add some custom behavior or have advanced needs.



```bash

# Copy the sessions controller into your app

rails challah:unpack:signin

```



## API Controllers



For apps that use JSON API controllers, Challah can be used to authenticate a user with a url parameter or an HTTP request header. This feature is disabled by default, so to use it you will need to change the `token_enabled` setting to `true`:



```ruby

# in config/initializers/challah.rb

Challah.options[:token_enabled] = true

```



Once enabled, this setting will allow the `api_key` for the user to be used to authenticate them via the `token` parameter, or `X-Auth-Token` HTTP header.



For example, the following request would authenticate a valid active user that has the `api_key` value of `abc123`:



``` shell

curl -H "X-Auth-Token: abc123" \

  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

  http://localhost:3000/api/test.json

```



Using the `token` param, you could write the same thing as:



``` shell

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

  http://localhost:3000/api/test.json?token=abc123

```



If you'd like to change the HTTP header used to fetch the user's api key from, you can change it using the `token_header` setting:



```ruby

# in config/initializers/challah.rb

Challah.options[:token_enabled] = true

Challah.options[:token_header] = "X-App-User"

```



Then:



``` shell

curl -H "X-App-User: abc123" \

  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

  http://localhost:3000/api/test.json

```



_Note: Custom HTTP headers should always start with X-_



## ActionCable



Challah works well with securing your ActionCable channels since Rails 5. Here is a sample `ApplicationCable::Connection` file to secure connections to a valid signed-in user:



```ruby

module ApplicationCable

  class Connection < ActionCable::Connection::Base



    identified_by :current_user



    def connect

      self.current_user = find_current_user

    end



    private



    def find_current_user

      if user = Challah::Session.find(request)

        user

      else

        reject_unauthorized_connection

      end

    end



  end

end

```



## User Validations



By default, the `first_name`, `last_name`, and `email` fields are required on the user model. If you'd prefer to add your own validations and leave the defaults off, you can use the following option within an initializer:



```ruby

# in config/initializers/challah.rb

Challah.options[:skip_user_validations] = true

```



## Authorization Model



The `Authorization` model can be used to store user credentials for a variety of different sources. By default, usernames and passwords are hashed and stored in this table.



In addition to the username/password, you can also use the authorizations table to store credentials or tokens for other services as well. For example, you could store a successful Facebook session using the following method:



```ruby

Authorization.set({

  # provider is just a key and can be anything to denote this service

  provider: :facebook,



  # the user's Facebook UID

  uid: "000000",



  # the user's Facebook-provided access token

  token: "abc123",



  # the user ID to link to this authorization

  user_id: user.id,



  # (optional, when this token expires)

  expires_at: 60.minutes.from_now

})

```



Then, to remove an authorization, just provide the user'd ID and the provider:



```ruby

Authorization.del({

  provider: :facebook,

  user_id: user.id

})

```



## Full documentation



Documentation is available at: [http://rubydoc.info/gems/challah](http://rubydoc.info/gems/challah)



## Issues



If you have any issues or find bugs running Challah, please [report them on Github](https://github.com/jdtornow/challah/issues). While most functions should be stable, Challah is still in its infancy and certain issues may be present.



## Testing



Challah is fully tested using RSpec. To run the test suite, `bundle install` then run:



```bash

rspec

```



## License



Challah is released under the [MIT license](http://www.opensource.org/licenses/MIT)



Contributions and pull-requests are more than welcome.