# Controller design for app with different user types

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/controller-design-for-app-with-different-user-types/159246>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 2, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/controller-design-for-app-with-different-user-types/159246 "2009-02-02T18:31:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![joey-alva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@joey-alva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joey-alva)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/controller-design-for-app-with-different-user-types/159246/1 "2009-02-02T18:31:35Z")

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Hi,

I am trying to implement an application where there are different types  
of users (about 5-6). The privileges of each type of user varies pretty  
drastically and hence when each logs into the application, each will  
have his own home page and set of things that he can do that differs  
from other types of users.

Since the views would also change (or rather look totally different) for  
each of them, I thought it would be better to have totally different  
controllers and actions based on the type of users. I have been reading  
about how to design this kind of an scenario but have not been able to  
stumble upon a sound design as of now. There was one reference to  
namespaced controllers… do you think this would be the best approach  
for the situation in hand. If you know of any tutorial, that would be  
useful.

Plus, I see that a lot of my actions don’t fall just within the CRUD  
actions, I need more… can some lead me to design tips or tutorials for  
such a thing too? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

-J

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joey-alva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@joey-alva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joey-alva)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/controller-design-for-app-with-different-user-types/159246/2 "2009-02-02T20:21:45Z")

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Roles are fairly well-documented in the blogosphere, even if the roles  
are entirely orthogonal. Here are a few readings to get you started:

[http://metautonomo.us/2008/09/30/easy-role-based-authorization/](http://metautonomo.us/2008/09/30/easy-role-based-authorization/)  
[http://railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=1579](http://railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=1579)  
[http://www.vaporbase.com/postings/Authorization\_in\_Rails](http://www.vaporbase.com/postings/Authorization_in_Rails)

Are the views actually that different? It may be just that the content  
of the profiles is determined by the user’s role(s), but the template  
can remain the same for all roles.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joey-alva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@joey-alva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joey-alva)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 12:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/controller-design-for-app-with-different-user-types/159246/3 "2009-02-03T12:59:56Z")

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Hey Eric,

Thanks a lot for the links. The first one was really useful as that  
addresses overlapping permissions for various roles and my application,  
I suppose, falls in that domain.

As for the views, yes they are radically different for each type of  
user. The app brings different types of users together and hence  
generally they all don’t interact with the same set of models. There are  
some common models that they all interact with but many models are  
specific to the user type. Hence the views look different for each user  
type. That’s why I was wondering if I could use something like the  
following:

map.namespace :client do |client|  
client.resources :projects, :preferences  
client.resources :forums do |forums|  
forums.resources :topics  
end  
end

map.namespace :employee do |employee|  
employee.resources :profile, :calendar  
employee.resources :forums do |forums|  
forums.resources :topics  
end  
end

…and so on for each type of user. The above code is just an example,  
I’ve not used the exact project details.

I’ve used :forums in both user types to just give an example for shared  
models but even in those the view would look very different for each  
user type.

Can someone tell me if I am on the right path?

Thanks!  
-J