# Feeling like I want to cheat : Plugins versus coding **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [August 23, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/feeling-like-i-want-to-cheat-plugins-versus-coding/66172 "2006-08-23T19:32:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/feeling-like-i-want-to-cheat-plugins-versus-coding/66172/1 "2006-08-23T19:32:10Z")
I’ve been working on a signup / login system. Things seem to be working alright with it. However I earlier setup acts\_as\_authenticated as a test app and looked at restful\_authenticate. They seem pretty robust, and might relieve some of the work for me. I’m just not sure which direction to go in , a. my own code b. plugins with some customization. Any opinions ? Stuart ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/feeling-like-i-want-to-cheat-plugins-versus-coding/66172/2 "2006-08-23T19:42:11Z")
Dark A. wrote: > I’ve been working on a signup / login system. Things seem to be > working alright with it. However I earlier setup acts\_as\_authenticated > as a test app and looked at restful\_authenticate. They seem pretty > robust, and might relieve some of the work for me. I’m just not sure > which direction to go in , a. my own code b. plugins with some > customization. > > Any opinions ? > > Stuart I use the code from Agile Web Dev book for my login system. It works for me, so I keep reusing it. I haven’t tried any other methods for logins though. I like it more than using a plugin because I haven’t learned how to edit plugins yet, but it’s easy to edit the code for the Login model from the agile code so I can change the login process for each of my projects. -Ben L. ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 9:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/feeling-like-i-want-to-cheat-plugins-versus-coding/66172/3 "2006-08-23T21:28:24Z")
On 23 Aug 2006, at 18:14, Dark A. wrote: > Stuart > I suppose it depends what you want out of it. I’m using > acts\_as\_authenticated in a project I’m working on at the moment. > Because of the timescale given for this project, I need to “cut > corners” as much as possible and so using someone elses code for an > authentication system will save me lots of time. It is a great plug- > in and there’s no reason you can’t look at the code and see how it > works. If you want to learn and have time on your hands, there’s no > reason why you shouldn’t develop your own authentication system. Alastair * * * Alastair M. Standards compliant web development with Ruby On Rails, PHP and ASP [www.kozmo.co.uk](http://www.kozmo.co.uk) 07738 399038 ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/feeling-like-i-want-to-cheat-plugins-versus-coding/66172/4 "2006-08-23T23:06:09Z")
Stuart Fellowes wrote: > I’ve been working on a signup / login system. Things seem to be > working alright with it. However I earlier setup acts\_as\_authenticated > as a test app and looked at restful\_authenticate. They seem pretty > robust, and might relieve some of the work for me. I’m just not sure > which direction to go in , a. my own code b. plugins with some > customization. > > Any opinions ? > > Stuart Acts\_as\_authenticated and ACL do everything I could ever need and more. Again, as was stated earlier, if you have something custom pick up the Agile book and code something. Im my opinion acts\_as\_authenticated is pretty easy to understand and customize, and a great example of well writted code. ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/feeling-like-i-want-to-cheat-plugins-versus-coding/66172/5 "2006-08-23T22:46:34Z")
I’ve never messed with acts\_as\_authenticated, so I can’t really compare, but the login\_engine plugin is the most comprehensive login system I’ve seen for Rails, complete with password encryption _and_ email password reminders. Jason ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/feeling-like-i-want-to-cheat-plugins-versus-coding/66172/6 "2006-08-24T05:29:47Z")
I’ve used login\_engine and user\_engine on a few projects and couldn’t be happier. I tweak the models/controllers/views as neeeded. I also use the “remember me” solution detailed on this blog: [http://www.turnofthecrank.com/2006/03/08/how-to-persist-rails-sessions-via-cookies-using-the-login-engine-plugin/](http://www.turnofthecrank.com/2006/03/08/how-to-persist-rails-sessions-via-cookies-using-the-login-engine-plugin/). In my mind, why reinvent the wheel? These drop-ins work great and are easily modified to get just the effect you want, so why trudge around over well-worn territory writing your own? c. Jason R. wrote: > I’ve never messed with acts\_as\_authenticated, so I can’t really compare, > but > the login\_engine plugin is the most comprehensive login system I’ve seen > for > Rails, complete with password encryption _and_ email password reminders. > > Jason