Ruby On Rails: Login

By David Patrick

This tutorial demonstrates how to add user login to a Ruby on Rails application. We recommend that you log in to follow this quickstart with examples configured for your account.

I want to integrate with my app

15 minutes

Configure Auth0
Install the Auth0 SDK
Add Login to Your Application
Add Logout to Your Application
Show User Profile Information

I want to explore a sample app

2 minutes

Get a sample configured with your account settings or check it out on Github.

View on Github

System requirements: Ruby 2.5.0+ | Rails 6.0+ or Rails 5.0+ or Rails 4.2+

New to Auth? Learn How Auth0 works, how it integrates with Regular Web Applications and which protocol it uses.

Configure Auth0

Get Your Application Keys

When you signed up for Auth0, a new application was created for you, or you could have created a new one. You will need some details about that application to communicate with Auth0. You can get these details from the Application Settings section in the Auth0 dashboard.

App Dashboard

You need the following information:

Domain
Client ID
Client Secret

If you download the sample from the top of this page, these details are filled out for you.

Configure Callback URLs

A callback URL is a URL in your application where Auth0 redirects the user after they have authenticated. The callback URL for your app must be added to the Allowed Callback URLs field in your Application Settings. If this field is not set, users will be unable to log in to the application and will get an error.

If you are following along with the sample project you downloaded from the top of this page, the callback URL you need to add to the Allowed Callback URLs field is http://localhost:3000/auth/auth0/callback.

Configure Logout URLs

A logout URL is a URL in your application that Auth0 can return to after the user has been logged out of the authorization server. This is specified in the returnTo query parameter. The logout URL for your app must be added to the Allowed Logout URLs field in your Application Settings. If this field is not set, users will be unable to log out from the application and will get an error.

If you are following along with the sample project you downloaded from the top of this page, the logout URL you need to add to the Allowed Logout URLs field is http://localhost:3000.

Install the Auth0 SDK

Install Dependencies

This tutorial uses omniauth-auth0, a custom OmniAuth strategy, to handle the authentication flow. Add the following dependencies to your Gemfile:

gem 'omniauth-auth0', '~> 3.0'
gem 'omniauth-rails_csrf_protection', '~> 1.0' # prevents forged authentication requests

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Once your gems are added, install the gems with bundle install:

Initialize Auth0 Configuration

Create an Auth0 config file ./config/auth0.yml

# ./config/auth0.yml
development:
  auth0_domain: YOUR_DOMAIN
  auth0_client_id: YOUR_CLIENT_ID
  auth0_client_secret: <YOUR AUTH0 CLIENT SECRET>

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Create the following initializer file ./config/initializers/auth0.rb and configure the OmniAuth middleware.

# ./config/initializers/auth0.rb
AUTH0_CONFIG = Rails.application.config_for(:auth0)

Rails.application.config.middleware.use OmniAuth::Builder do
  provider(
    :auth0,
    AUTH0_CONFIG['auth0_client_id'],
    AUTH0_CONFIG['auth0_client_secret'],
    AUTH0_CONFIG['auth0_domain'],
    callback_path: '/auth/auth0/callback',
    authorize_params: {
      scope: 'openid profile'
    }
  )
end

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Add an Auth0 controller

Create an Auth0 controller for handling the authentication callback. Run the command rails generate controller auth0 callback failure logout --skip-assets --skip-helper --skip-routes --skip-template-engine.

Inside of the callback method assign the hash of user information, returned as request.env['omniauth.auth'], to the active session.

# ./app/controllers/auth0_controller.rb
class Auth0Controller < ApplicationController
  def callback
    # OmniAuth stores the information returned from Auth0 and the IdP in request.env['omniauth.auth'].
    # In this code, you will pull the raw_info supplied from the id_token and assign it to the session.
    # Refer to https://github.com/auth0/omniauth-auth0#authentication-hash for complete information on 'omniauth.auth' contents.
    auth_info = request.env['omniauth.auth']
    session[:userinfo] = auth_info['extra']['raw_info']

    # Redirect to the URL you want after successful auth
    redirect_to '/dashboard'
  end

  def failure
    # Handles failed authentication -- Show a failure page (you can also handle with a redirect)
    @error_msg = request.params['message']
  end

  def logout
    # you will finish this in a later step
  end
end

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Add the following routes to your ./config/routes.rb file:

# ./config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  # ..
  get '/auth/auth0/callback' => 'auth0#callback'
  get '/auth/failure' => 'auth0#failure'
  get '/auth/logout' => 'auth0#logout'
end

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A user can now log into your application by visiting the /auth/auth0 endpoint.

To prevent forged authentication requests, use the link_to or button_to helper methods with the :post method

  <!-- Place a login button anywhere on your application -->
  <%= button_to 'Login', '/auth/auth0', method: :post %>

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Add Logout to Your Application

Now that you can log in to your Rails application, you need a way to log out. Revisit the Auth0Controller you created earlier, and finish up the logout method added there.

You will need to clear out your session and then redirect the user to the Auth0 logout endpoint.

To clear out all the objects stored within the session, call the reset_session method within the auth0_controller/logout method. Learn more about reset_session here. Add the following code to ./app/controllers/auth0_controller.rb:

# ./app/controllers/auth0_controller.rb
class Auth0Controller < ApplicationController
  # ..
  # ..Insert the code below
  def logout
    reset_session
    redirect_to logout_url
  end

  private

  def logout_url
    request_params = {
      returnTo: root_url,
      client_id: AUTH0_CONFIG['auth0_client_id']
    }

    URI::HTTPS.build(host: AUTH0_CONFIG['auth0_domain'], path: '/v2/logout', query: request_params.to_query).to_s
  end
end

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The final destination URL (the returnTo value) needs to be in the list of Allowed Logout URLs . See the logout documentation for more.

The user will now be able to logout of your application by visiting the /auth/logout endpoint.

  <!-- Place a logout button anywhere on your application -->
  <%= button_to 'Logout', 'auth/logout', method: :get %>

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Show User Profile Information

To display the user's profile, your application should provide a protected route. You can use a controller concern to control access to routes. Create the following file ./app/controllers/concerns/secured.rb

# ./app/controllers/concerns/secured.rb
module Secured
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  included do
    before_action :logged_in_using_omniauth?
  end

  def logged_in_using_omniauth?
    redirect_to '/' unless session[:userinfo].present?
  end
end

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After you have created the secured controller concern, include it in any controller that requires a logged in user. You can then access the user from the session session[:userinfo].

# ./app/controllers/dashboard_controller.rb
class DashboardController < ApplicationController
  include Secured

  def show
    # session[:userinfo] was saved earlier on Auth0Controller#callback
    @user = session[:userinfo]
  end
end

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Now that you have loaded the user from the session, you can use it to display information in your frontend.

<!-- ./app/views/dashboard/show.html.erb -->
<div>
  <p>Normalized User Profile:<%= JSON.pretty_generate(@user[:info])%></p>
  <p>Full User Profile:<%= JSON.pretty_generate(@user[:extra][:raw_info])%></p>
</div>

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