Geek Mama

Restful Authentication on Multi-Databases

August 26th, 2008

Recently, we had a need to pull out the users table into a separate database for security reasons. So I’ve heard that DHH isn’t down with multiple databases (?), but last year he mentioned a cool new gem called Magic Multi-Connections.

I might try it out at some point, but it still seems like jumping through more hoops than I really need. After completing the RESTful Authentication tutorial, I instead referred to Recipe #15 from Rails Recipes and defined a parent class called Security:


class Security < ActiveRecord::Base
self.abstract_class = true
set_table_name "users"
set_primary_key "id"
establish_connection :security
end


Modified the existing User:

class User < Security


And that’s basically it. It just kind of worked.

I did have some problems with the redirect_to root_path line in the update method of the accounts_controller, had to change it to render :action => ‘edit’. But this was just a quirk from the tutorial.

My new concern is migrations. If you rake db:migrate, it migrates your tables to your primary database and that’s it. I’ve seen a way to fix this on the net, but I haven’t gone down that road yet. In the meantime you’ll find the SQL to create the 2nd database and user table below:


CREATE DATABASE security

CREATE TABLE users
(id int,
login char(40),
email char(40),
crypted_password char(40),
salt char(40),
created_at datetime,
updated_at datetime,
remember_token char(40),
remember_token_expires_at datetime,
activation_code char(40),
activated_at datetime,
password_reset_code char(40),
enabled boolean,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);


So far so good. Everything seems to be working in Application 1. Since I don’t really need to worry about sharing sessions, this implementation should work fine for us. I’ll need to reimplement everything in Application 2 but not only can I keep my user table secure but my users can login with the same username and password used in App 1. I’ll let you know how it all pans out.

Entry Filed under: Ruby on Rails