# Beginner Questions Need Help

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginner-questions-need-help/118457>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [October 27, 2007, 4:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginner-questions-need-help/118457 "2007-10-27T04:58:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![freaknasty](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@freaknasty](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/freaknasty)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 4:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginner-questions-need-help/118457/1 "2007-10-27T04:58:35Z")

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Hello everyone,

I was trying to create a website with many users and each user is  
entitled to view their account. How should I start? Cookies? Or  
unique sessions? Any leads or tips on making a professional site would  
be nice. Any roadblocks to consider? Thanks for your help.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![freaknasty](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@freaknasty](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/freaknasty)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 6:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginner-questions-need-help/118457/2 "2007-10-27T06:31:49Z")

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typically once you are happy that the user is who they claim to be,  
you do something like session[:user\_id] = @user.id  
Then on subsequent approaches you can do User.find(session[:user\_id])  
to get the logged in user. Often one uses a before\_filter to restrict  
access to the appropriate pages. There is a plugin  
(acts\_as\_authenticated) that does most of this for you.

Fred