rodauth-rails

Provides Rails integration for the Rodauth authentication framework.

Resources

Useful links:

• Rodauth documentation
• Rails demo

Articles:

• Rodauth: A Refreshing Authentication Solution for Ruby
• Adding Authentication in Rails 6 with Rodauth

Upgrading

Upgrading to 0.7.0

Starting from version 0.7.0, rodauth-rails now correctly detects Rails application's secret_key_base when setting default hmac_secret, including when it's set via credentials or $SECRET_KEY_BASE environment variable. This means authentication will be more secure by default, and Rodauth features that require hmac_secret should now work automatically as well.

However, if you've already been using rodauth-rails in production, where the secret_key_base is set via credentials or environment variable and hmac_secret was not explicitly set, the fact that your authentication will now start using HMACs has backwards compatibility considerations. See the Rodauth documentation for instructions on how to safely transition, or just set hmac_secret nil in your Rodauth configuration.

Installation

Add the gem to your Gemfile:

gem "rodauth-rails", "~> 0.6"

# gem "jwt",      require: false # for JWT feature
# gem "rotp",     require: false # for OTP feature
# gem "rqrcode",  require: false # for OTP feature
# gem "webauthn", require: false # for WebAuthn feature

Then run bundle install.

Next, run the install generator:

$ rails generate rodauth:install

The generator will create the following files:

• Rodauth migration at db/migrate/*_create_rodauth.rb
• Rodauth initializer at config/initializers/rodauth.rb
• Sequel initializer at config/initializers/sequel.rb for ActiveRecord integration
• Rodauth app at app/lib/rodauth_app.rb
• Rodauth controller at app/controllers/rodauth_controller.rb
• Account model at app/models/account.rb

Migration

The migration file creates tables required by Rodauth. You're encouraged to review the migration, and modify it to only create tables for features you intend to use.

# db/migrate/*_create_rodauth.rb
class CreateRodauth < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :accounts do |t| ... end
    create_table :account_password_hashes do |t| ... end
    create_table :account_password_reset_keys do |t| ... end
    create_table :account_verification_keys do |t| ... end
    create_table :account_login_change_keys do |t| ... end
    create_table :account_remember_keys do |t| ... end
  end
end

Once you're done, you can run the migration:

$ rails db:migrate

Rodauth initializer

The Rodauth initializer assigns the constant for your Rodauth app, which will be called by the Rack middleware that's added in front of your Rails router.

# config/initializers/rodauth.rb
Rodauth::Rails.configure do |config|
  config.app = "RodauthApp"
end

Sequel initializer

Rodauth uses Sequel for database interaction. If you're using ActiveRecord, an additional initializer will be created which configures Sequel to use the ActiveRecord connection.

# config/initializers/sequel.rb
require "sequel/core"

# initialize Sequel and have it reuse Active Record's database connection
DB = Sequel.connect("postgresql://", extensions: :activerecord_connection)

Rodauth app

Your Rodauth app is created in the app/lib/ directory, and comes with a default set of authentication features enabled, as well as extensive examples on ways you can configure authentication behaviour.

# app/lib/rodauth_app.rb
class RodauthApp < Rodauth::Rails::App
  configure do
    # authentication configuration
  end

  route do |r|
    # request handling
  end
end

Controller

Your Rodauth app will by default use RodauthController for view rendering, CSRF protection, and running controller callbacks and rescue handlers around Rodauth actions.

# app/controllers/rodauth_controller.rb
class RodauthController < ApplicationController
end

Account model

Rodauth stores user accounts in the accounts table, so the generator will also create an Account model for custom use.

# app/models/account.rb
class Account < ApplicationRecord
end

Usage

Routes

We can see the list of routes our Rodauth middleware handles:

$ rails rodauth:routes

Routes handled by RodauthApp:

  /login                   rodauth.login_path
  /create-account          rodauth.create_account_path
  /verify-account-resend   rodauth.verify_account_resend_path
  /verify-account          rodauth.verify_account_path
  /change-password         rodauth.change_password_path
  /change-login            rodauth.change_login_path
  /logout                  rodauth.logout_path
  /remember                rodauth.remember_path
  /reset-password-request  rodauth.reset_password_request_path
  /reset-password          rodauth.reset_password_path
  /verify-login-change     rodauth.verify_login_change_path
  /close-account           rodauth.close_account_path

Using this information, we could add some basic authentication links to our navigation header:

<ul>
  <% if rodauth.authenticated? %>
    <li><%= link_to "Sign out", rodauth.logout_path, method: :post %></li>
  <% else %>
    <li><%= link_to "Sign in", rodauth.login_path %></li>
    <li><%= link_to "Sign up", rodauth.create_account_path %></li>
  <% end %>
</ul>

These routes are fully functional, feel free to visit them and interact with the pages. The templates that ship with Rodauth aim to provide a complete authentication experience, and the forms use Bootstrap markup.

Current account

To be able to fetch currently authenticated account, let's define a #current_account method that fetches the account id from session and retrieves the corresponding account record:

# app/controllers/application_controller.rb
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  before_action :current_account, if: -> { rodauth.authenticated? }

  private

  def current_account
    @current_account ||= Account.find(rodauth.session_value)
  rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
    rodauth.logout
    rodauth.login_required
  end
  helper_method :current_account
end

This allows us to access the current account in controllers and views:

<p>Authenticated as: <%= current_account.email %></p>

Requiring authentication

We'll likely want to require authentication for certain parts of our app, redirecting the user to the login page if they're not logged in. We can do this in our Rodauth app's routing block, which helps keep the authentication logic encapsulated:

# app/lib/rodauth_app.rb
class RodauthApp < Rodauth::Rails::App
  # ...
  route do |r|
    # ...
    r.rodauth # route rodauth requests

    # require authentication for /dashboard/* and /account/* routes
    if r.path.start_with?("/dashboard") || r.path.start_with?("/account")
      rodauth.require_authentication # redirect to login page if not authenticated
    end
  end
end

We can also require authentication at the controller layer:

# app/controllers/application_controller.rb
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  private

  def authenticate
    rodauth.require_authentication # redirect to login page if not authenticated
  end
end

# app/controllers/dashboard_controller.rb
class DashboardController < ApplicationController
  before_action :authenticate
end

# app/controllers/posts_controller.rb
class PostsController < ApplicationController
  before_action :authenticate, except: [:index, :show]
end

Or at the Rails router level:

# config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  constraints -> (r) { r.env["rodauth"].require_authentication } do
    namespace :admin do
      # ...
    end
  end
end

Views

The templates built into Rodauth are useful when getting started, but soon you'll want to start editing the markup. You can run the following command to copy Rodauth templates into your Rails app:

$ rails generate rodauth:views

This will generate views for the default set of Rodauth features into the app/views/rodauth directory, which will be automatically picked up by the RodauthController.

You can pass a list of Rodauth features to the generator to create views for these features (this will not remove any existing views):

$ rails generate rodauth:views login create_account lockout otp

Or you can generate views for all features:

$ rails generate rodauth:views --all

You can also tell the generator to create views into another directory (in this case make sure to rename the Rodauth controller accordingly):

# generates views into app/views/authentication
$ rails generate rodauth:views --name authentication

Layout

To use different layouts for different Rodauth views, you can compare the request path in the layout method:

class RodauthController < ApplicationController
  layout :rodauth_layout

  private

  def rodauth_layout
    case request.path
    when rodauth.login_path,
         rodauth.create_account_path,
         rodauth.verify_account_path,
         rodauth.reset_password_path,
         rodauth.reset_password_request_path
      "authentication"
    else
      "dashboard"
    end
  end
end

Mailer

Depending on the features you've enabled, Rodauth may send emails as part of the authentication flow. Most email settings can be customized:

# app/lib/rodauth_app.rb
class RodauthApp < Rodauth::Rails::App
  # ...
  configure do
    # ...
    # general settings
    email_from "no-reply@myapp.com"
    email_subject_prefix "[MyApp] "
    send_email(&:deliver_later)
    # ...
    # feature settings
    verify_account_email_subject "Verify your account"
    verify_account_email_body { "Verify your account by visting this link: #{verify_account_email_link}" }
    # ...
  end
end

This is convenient when starting out, but eventually you might want to use your own mailer. You can start by running the following command:

$ rails generate rodauth:mailer

This will create a RodauthMailer with the associated mailer views in app/views/rodauth_mailer directory.

# app/mailers/rodauth_mailer.rb
class RodauthMailer < ApplicationMailer
  def verify_account(recipient, email_link) ... end
  def reset_password(recipient, email_link) ... end
  def verify_login_change(recipient, old_login, new_login, email_link) ... end
  def password_changed(recipient) ... end
  # def email_auth(recipient, email_link) ... end
  # def unlock_account(recipient, email_link) ... end
end

You can then uncomment the lines in your Rodauth configuration to have it call your mailer. If you've enabled additional authentication features that send emails, make sure to override their create_*_email methods as well.

# app/lib/rodauth_app.rb
class RodauthApp < Rodauth::Rails::App
  # ...
  configure do
    # ...
    create_reset_password_email do
      RodauthMailer.reset_password(email_to, reset_password_email_link)
    end
    create_verify_account_email do
      RodauthMailer.verify_account(email_to, verify_account_email_link)
    end
    create_verify_login_change_email do |login|
      RodauthMailer.verify_login_change(login, verify_login_change_old_login, verify_login_change_new_login, verify_login_change_email_link)
    end
    create_password_changed_email do
      RodauthMailer.password_changed(email_to)
    end
    # create_email_auth_email do
    #   RodauthMailer.email_auth(email_to, email_auth_email_link)
    # end
    # create_unlock_account_email do
    #   RodauthMailer.unlock_account(email_to, unlock_account_email_link)
    # end
    send_email do |email|
      # queue email delivery on the mailer after the transaction commits
      db.after_commit { email.deliver_later }
    end
    # ...
  end
end

This approach can be used even if you're using a 3rd-party service for transactional emails, where emails are sent via API requests instead of SMTP. Whatever the create_*_email block returns will be passed to send_email, so you can be creative.

Migrations

The install generator will create a migration for tables used by the Rodauth features enabled by default. For any additional features, you can use the migration generator to create the corresponding tables:

$ rails generate rodauth:migration otp sms_codes recovery_codes

# db/migration/*_create_rodauth_otp_sms_codes_recovery_codes.rb
class CreateRodauthOtpSmsCodesRecoveryCodes < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :account_otp_keys do |t| ... end
    create_table :account_sms_codes do |t| ... end
    create_table :account_recovery_codes do |t| ... end
  end
end

JSON API

JSON API support in Rodauth is provided by the JWT feature. First you'll need to add the JWT gem to your Gemfile:

gem "jwt"

The following configuration will enable the Rodauth endpoints to be accessed via JSON requests (in addition to HTML requests):

# app/lib/rodauth_app.rb
class RodauthApp < Rodauth::Rails::App
  configure(json: true) do
    # ...
    enable :jwt
    jwt_secret "...your secret key..."
    # ...
  end
end

If you want the endpoints to be only accessible via JSON requests, or if your Rails app is in API-only mode, instead of json: true pass json: :only to the configure method.

Make sure to store the jwt_secret in a secure place, such as Rails credentials or environment variables.

Calling controller methods

When using Rodauth before/after hooks or generally overriding your Rodauth configuration, in some cases you might want to call methods defined on your controllers. You can do so with rails_controller_eval, for example:

# app/controllers/application_controller.rb
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  private
  def setup_tracking(account_id)
    # ... some implementation ...
  end
end

# app/lib/rodauth_app.rb
class RodauthApp < Rodauth::Rails::App
  configure do
    after_create_account do
      rails_controller_eval { setup_tracking(account_id) }
    end
  end
end

Rodauth instance

In some cases you might need to use Rodauth more programmatically, and perform Rodauth operations outside of the request context. rodauth-rails gives you the ability to retrieve the Rodauth instance:

rodauth = Rodauth::Rails.rodauth # or Rodauth::Rails.rodauth(:secondary)

rodauth.login_url #=> "https://example.com/login"
rodauth.account_from_login("user@example.com") # loads user by email
rodauth.password_match?("secret") #=> true
rodauth.setup_account_verification
rodauth.close_account

This Rodauth instance will be initialized with basic Rack env that allows is it to generate URLs, using config.action_mailer.default_url_options options.

How it works

Middleware

rodauth-rails inserts a Rodauth::Rails::Middleware into your middleware stack, which calls your Rodauth app for each request, before the request reaches the Rails router.

$ rails middleware
...
use Rodauth::Rails::Middleware
run MyApp::Application.routes

The Rodauth app stores the Rodauth::Auth instance in the Rack env hash, which is then available in your Rails app:

request.env["rodauth"]           #=> #<Rodauth::Auth>
request.env["rodauth.secondary"] #=> #<Rodauth::Auth> (if using multiple configurations)

For convenience, this object can be accessed via the #rodauth method in views and controllers:

class MyController < ApplicationController
  def my_action
    rodauth             #=> #<Rodauth::Auth>
    rodauth(:secondary) #=> #<Rodauth::Auth> (if using multiple configurations)
  end
end

<% rodauth             #=> #<Rodauth::Auth> %>
<% rodauth(:secondary) #=> #<Rodauth::Auth> (if using multiple configurations) %>

App

The Rodauth::Rails::App class is a Roda subclass that provides Rails integration for Rodauth:

• uses Action Dispatch flash instead of Roda's
• uses Action Dispatch CSRF protection instead of Roda's
• sets HMAC secret to Rails' secret key base
• uses Action Controller for rendering templates
• runs Action Controller callbacks & rescue handlers around Rodauth actions
• uses Action Mailer for sending emails

The configure { ... } method wraps configuring the Rodauth plugin, forwarding any additional plugin options.

configure { ... }             # defining default Rodauth configuration
configure(json: true) { ... } # passing options to the Rodauth plugin
configure(:secondary) { ... } # defining multiple Rodauth configurations

Sequel

Rodauth uses the Sequel library for database queries, due to more advanced database usage (SQL expressions, database-agnostic date arithmetic, SQL function calls).

If ActiveRecord is used in the application, the rodauth:install generator will have automatically configured Sequel to reuse ActiveRecord's database connection (using the sequel-activerecord_connection gem).

This means that, from the usage perspective, Sequel can be considered just as an implementation detail of Rodauth.

Configuring

For the list of configuration methods provided by Rodauth, see the feature documentation.

The rails feature rodauth-rails loads is customizable as well, here is the list of its configuration methods:

Name	Description
rails_render(**options)	Renders the template with given render options.
rails_csrf_tag	Hidden field added to Rodauth templates containing the CSRF token.
rails_csrf_param	Value of the name attribute for the CSRF tag.
rails_csrf_token	Value of the value attribute for the CSRF tag.
rails_check_csrf!	Verifies the authenticity token for the current request.
rails_controller_instance	Instance of the controller with the request env context.
rails_controller	Controller class to use for rendering and CSRF protection.

The Rodauth::Rails module has a few config settings available as well:

Name	Description
app	Constant name of your Rodauth app, which is called by the middleware.
middleware	Whether to insert the middleware into the Rails application's middleware stack. Defaults to true.

# config/initializers/rodauth.rb
Rodauth::Rails.configure do |config|
  config.app = "RodauthApp"
  config.middleware = true
end

Testing

If you're writing system tests, it's generally better to go through the actual authentication flow with tools like Capybara, and to not use any stubbing.

In functional and integration tests you can just make requests to Rodauth routes:

# test/controllers/posts_controller_test.rb
class PostsControllerTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
  test "should require authentication" do
    get posts_url
    assert_redirected_to "/login"

    login
    get posts_url
    assert_response :success

    logout
    assert_redirected_to "/login"
  end

  private

  def login(login: "user@example.com", password: "secret")
    post "/create-account", params: {
      "login"            => login,
      "password"         => password,
      "password-confirm" => password,
    }

    post "/login", params: {
      "login"    => login,
      "password" => password,
    }
  end

  def logout
    post "/logout"
  end
end

Rodauth defaults

rodauth-rails changes some of the default Rodauth settings for easier setup:

Database functions

By default, on PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Microsoft SQL Server Rodauth uses database functions to access password hashes, with the user running the application unable to get direct access to password hashes. This reduces the risk of an attacker being able to access password hashes and use them to attack other sites.

While this is useful additional security, it is also more complex to set up and to reason about, as it requires having two different database users and making sure the correct migration is run for the correct user.

To keep with Rails' "convention over configuration" doctrine, rodauth-rails disables the use of database functions, though you can always turn it back on.

use_database_authentication_functions? true

To create the database functions, pass the Sequel database object into the Rodauth method for creating database functions:

# db/migrate/*_create_rodauth_database_functions.rb
class CreateRodauthDatabaseFunctions < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def up
    Rodauth.create_database_authentication_functions(DB)
  end

  def down
    Rodauth.drop_database_authentication_functions(DB)
  end
end

Account statuses

The recommended Rodauth migration stores possible account status values in a separate table, and creates a foreign key on the accounts table, which ensures only a valid status value will be persisted.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work when the database is restored from the schema file, in which case the account statuses table will be empty. This happens in tests by default, but it's also commonly done in development.

To address this, rodauth-rails modifies the setup to store account status text directly in the accounts table. If you're worried about invalid status values creeping in, you may use enums instead. Alternatively, you can always go back to the setup recommended by Rodauth.

# in the migration:
create_table :account_statuses do |t|
  t.string :name, null: false, unique: true
end
execute "INSERT INTO account_statuses (id, name) VALUES (1, 'Unverified'), (2, 'Verified'), (3, 'Closed')"

create_table :accounts do |t|
  # ...
  t.references :status, foreign_key: { to_table: :account_statuses }, null: false, default: 1
  # ...
end

configure do
  # ...
- account_status_column :status
- account_unverified_status_value "unverified"
- account_open_status_value "verified"
- account_closed_status_value "closed"
  # ...
end

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Code of Conduct

Everyone interacting in the rodauth-rails project's codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.