Authenticating REST Webservices

Rails
1

Hello ,
I have an app that is RESTful where there is a CMS side and an API side
using the same RESTful services, controllers, methods , etc. The issue
is
that the CMS requires traditional login (through restful_authentication)
but
API client requests would need to use HTTP BASIC AUth or something
similar I
would assume.

How are people solving this challenge with authenticating users to
their
app via the web and via REST client differently to accomplish this? I
was
thinking of going the API Key route and authenticating individual
applications but wasnt sure the best approach.

Thanks
Adam

2

The restful_authentication plugin handles both. Obviously it cannot
distinguish the two types of users since they both just use http
requests but what it does is authenticate against one of three known
sources: cookie, http basic, and session (where session stands for a
logged in user). By default the HTTP basic authentication
authenticates against your user table so you can give individual admin
access as necessary.