HTTP Basic authentication

Simple Basic example

class PostsController < ApplicationController
  http_basic_authenticate_with name: "dhh", password: "secret", except: :index

  def index
    render plain: "Everyone can see me!"
  end

  def edit
    render plain: "I'm only accessible if you know the password"
  end
end

Advanced Basic example

Here is a more advanced Basic example where only Atom feeds and the XML API are protected by HTTP authentication. The regular HTML interface is protected by a session approach:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  before_action :set_account, :authenticate

  private
    def set_account
      @account = Account.find_by(url_name: request.subdomains.first)
    end

    def authenticate
      case request.format
      when Mime[:xml], Mime[:atom]
        if user = authenticate_with_http_basic { |u, p| @account.users.authenticate(u, p) }
          @current_user = user
        else
          request_http_basic_authentication
        end
      else
        if session_authenticated?
          @current_user = @account.users.find(session[:authenticated][:user_id])
        else
          redirect_to(login_url) and return false
        end
      end
    end
end

In your integration tests, you can do something like this:

def test_access_granted_from_xml
  authorization = ActionController::HttpAuthentication::Basic.encode_credentials(users(:dhh).name, users(:dhh).password)

  get "/notes/1.xml", headers: { 'HTTP_AUTHORIZATION' => authorization }

  assert_equal 200, status
end

Namespace

Module

ActionController::HttpAuthentication::Basic::ControllerMethods

Instance Public methods

auth_param(request)

📝 Source code

# File actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/http_authentication.rb, line 127
      def auth_param(request)
        request.authorization.to_s.split(" ", 2).second
      end

🔎 See on GitHub

auth_scheme(request)

📝 Source code

# File actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/http_authentication.rb, line 123
      def auth_scheme(request)
        request.authorization.to_s.split(" ", 2).first
      end

🔎 See on GitHub

authenticate(request, &login_procedure)

📝 Source code

# File actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/http_authentication.rb, line 105
      def authenticate(request, &login_procedure)
        if has_basic_credentials?(request)
          login_procedure.call(*user_name_and_password(request))
        end
      end

🔎 See on GitHub

authentication_request(controller, realm, message)

📝 Source code

# File actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/http_authentication.rb, line 135
      def authentication_request(controller, realm, message)
        message ||= "HTTP Basic: Access denied.\n"
        controller.headers["WWW-Authenticate"] = %(Basic realm="#{realm.tr('"', "")}")
        controller.status = 401
        controller.response_body = message
      end

🔎 See on GitHub

decode_credentials(request)

📝 Source code

# File actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/http_authentication.rb, line 119
      def decode_credentials(request)
        ::Base64.decode64(auth_param(request) || "")
      end

🔎 See on GitHub

encode_credentials(user_name, password)

📝 Source code

# File actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/http_authentication.rb, line 131
      def encode_credentials(user_name, password)
        "Basic #{::Base64.strict_encode64("#{user_name}:#{password}")}"
      end

🔎 See on GitHub

has_basic_credentials?(request)

📝 Source code

# File actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/http_authentication.rb, line 111
      def has_basic_credentials?(request)
        request.authorization.present? && (auth_scheme(request).downcase == "basic")
      end

🔎 See on GitHub

user_name_and_password(request)

📝 Source code

# File actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/http_authentication.rb, line 115
      def user_name_and_password(request)
        decode_credentials(request).split(":", 2)
      end

🔎 See on GitHub