Problems with session store and local host

Rails 2.2.2
Ruby 1.8.6

I am developing an application that uses a gem for authentication. When
I try and add a new user then the rails code within the gem enters an
infinite loop. The author is working on this issue but I would like to
obtain the benefit of your collective experience.

Given
map.resource :account, :controller => ‘users’
map.resource :user_session
map.resources :users

GET /users/new

GET /users/new.xml

def new
@user = User.new(params[:user])
if @user.save
flash[:notice] = ‘User Account Added’
redirect_back_or_default account_url
else
render :action => new
end
end

POST /users

POST /users.xml

def create
@user = User.new(params[:user])

respond_to do |format|
  if @user.save
    flash[:notice] = 'User was successfully created.'
    format.html { redirect_to(@user) }
    format.xml  { render :xml => @user, :status => :created,

:location => @user }
else
format.html { render :action => “new” }
format.xml { render :xml => @user.errors, :status =>
:unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end

Here is what happens when the server tries to reach
localhost:3000/account/new

CACHE (0.0ms) SELECT “users”.id FROM “users” WHERE (“users”.“login”
IS NULL) LIMIT 1
User Exists (0.7ms) SELECT “users”.id FROM “users” WHERE
(“users”.“perishable_token” = ‘MNrVzl2G5B3AiVl8d3M2’) LIMIT 1
User Exists (0.4ms) SELECT “users”.id FROM “users” WHERE
(“users”.“persistence_token” =
‘d0357dc4dd2660ae35cdc910a8b9084d4146f3f590722ae683efd974c22095dedba100af859a15a442621444114fa1cd5d66bff0a62f6585f715de9b1de33429’)
LIMIT 1
CACHE (0.0ms) SELECT “users”.id FROM “users” WHERE (“users”.“login”
IS NULL) LIMIT 1
User Exists (0.6ms) SELECT “users”.id FROM “users” WHERE
(“users”.“perishable_token” = ‘1Vyz36vPA5frHn8J0XII’) LIMIT 1
User Exists (0.5ms) SELECT “users”.id FROM “users” WHERE
(“users”.“persistence_token” =
‘b2e81093c5ca6a9078b08077fdd8fee8d3a4d4a9d7a299316ac8a15f4a9ea5c6af649800f1b52ad546c6e099d4b7720906b9ef091d224c09b35cc6c29debc333’)
LIMIT 1

I infer from this that when the user is null, as is the case with a new
user, then the gem code sets two session tokens that it then checks in
its database. The conclusion that I reach is that the client user
session is not getting these values set by the application and that, as
the user login value remains null, the process repeats ad infinitum.
The question becomes: why are tokens not being set in the session?

I ran across this thread Pragmatic Bookshelf: By Developers, For Developers
and wonder if I may have encountered a related problem.

The problem arises whether I use cookie based sessions or AR based
sessions.

Has anyone else run across this type of problem? How was it resolved.

On 12 Dec 2008, at 17:03, James B. wrote:

obtain the benefit of your collective experience.
which gem ? You haven’t really shown us anything much beyond what a
standard scaffolded model would look like.
What is the actual code responsible from the log excerpt you pasted
below? In addition it would be helpful to see what happened before it
got stuck in a loop.

Fred

Frederick C. wrote:

On 12 Dec 2008, at 17:03, James B. wrote:

obtain the benefit of your collective experience.
which gem ? You haven’t really shown us anything much beyond what a
standard scaffolded model would look like.
What is the actual code responsible from the log excerpt you pasted
below? In addition it would be helpful to see what happened before it
got stuck in a loop.

Fred

I would rather not publicize the gem name since that might be taken as a
public criticism. I changed the users/new controller call from save to
save! and what turned up was a bunch of model validation errors. The
loop was caused by the controller simply re-rendering the form when the
save failed. evidently there is some problem causing the the model
validations to be checked before the input form template is rendered. I
have communicated this to the gem author.

On 12 Dec 2008, at 19:54, James B. wrote:

Fred

I would rather not publicize the gem name since that might be taken
as a
public criticism.
Come, on this is open source after all :slight_smile: Besides I reckon the gem in
question is authlogic

Fred

Frederick C. wrote:

Come, on this is open source after all :slight_smile:

Yes, but the problem was with my code, not his.

def new
@user = User.new(params[:user])
if @user.save
flash[:notice] = ‘User Account Added’
redirect_back_or_default account_url
else
render :action => new
end
end

Should have been.

def new
@user = User.new
end

Somehow I ended up coding a create method and labelling it as new.