# Exception to session timeouts?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/exception-to-session-timeouts/104946>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 24, 2007, 7:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/exception-to-session-timeouts/104946 "2007-05-24T07:57:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rmehta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@rmehta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rmehta)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 7:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/exception-to-session-timeouts/104946/1 "2007-05-24T07:57:11Z")

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Hi,

I am using the session timeout plugin to expire the sessions after a  
certain period of time. But the problem is that for that I have to give  
the expiry time and the action to perform on expiry in application  
controller. Now, I have certain actions in some controllers which don’t  
use sessions and hence should work evem if the session is expired. Also,  
I tried putting the session timeout code before the filters in the other  
controllers but as I have a before\_filter to check for authorization,  
hence I get an error saying that I can’t specify two redirects or  
renders.

class CminfoController \< ApplicationController  
session\_times\_out\_in 15.minute, :after\_timeout=\>:timeout\_redirect

before\_filter :login\_required

Above code causes :

ActionController::DoubleRenderError in CminfoController#storelist

Render and/or redirect were called multiple times in this action. Please  
note that you may only call render OR redirect, and only once per  
action. Also note that neither redirect nor render terminate execution  
of the action, so if you want to exit an action after redirecting, you  
need to do something like “redirect\_to(…) and return”. Finally, note  
that to cause a before filter to halt execution of the rest of the  
filter chain, the filter must return false, explicitly, so “render(…)  
and return false”.

But if I move the session timeout to application.rb, then what do I  
specify in xyz controller that makes its actions work even if the  
session has expired?

Thanks for any help.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rmehta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@rmehta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rmehta)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/exception-to-session-timeouts/104946/2 "2007-05-24T17:36:33Z")

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Hi, if your session information is tied to your authentication, then it  
would only affect the actions that require authentication. Thus, you’ll  
need to change the following line because it requires authentication for  
all  
your public actions in the controller in question:

before\_filter :login\_required

to something similar to the following:

before\_filter :login\_required, :except =\> [:, :, …]

Now, you’re authenticating for all actions except , ,  
…

Good luck,

-Conrad

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rmehta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@rmehta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rmehta)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 6:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/exception-to-session-timeouts/104946/3 "2007-05-24T18:09:44Z")

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Actually, I am using the sessions to store my menus also which are  
loaded from database. Hence, some general area of the site does no  
require login data from session. But sessions are needed in controllers  
where login is not needed to display menu.In those controllers timeout  
should not happen.

So, now what should I do?

Conrad T. wrote:

> Hi, if your session information is tied to your authentication, then it  
> would only affect the actions that require authentication. Thus, you’ll  
> need to change the following line because it requires authentication for  
> all  
> your public actions in the controller in question:
> 
> before\_filter :login\_required
> 
> to something similar to the following:
> 
> before\_filter :login\_required, :except =\> [:, :, …]
> 
> Now, you’re authenticating for all actions except , ,  
> …
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> -Conrad