# Limiting Access of Nested Resources **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [September 29, 2008, 6:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-access-of-nested-resources/149735 "2008-09-29T06:45:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sinkva)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 6:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-access-of-nested-resources/149735/1 "2008-09-29T06:45:41Z")
So I’m using nested routes for a users model that has measurements and journals… like this: map.resources :users do |users| users.resources :journals users.resources :measurements end This of course builds routes as something like: /user/:user\_id/journals/:id /user/:user\_id/measurements/:id In the case of this application the logged in user is only going to be accessing his or her own resources (journals and measurements). So my question is: What is the proper way to accommodate that in routing so that /user/:user\_id isn’t necessary and just going to /journals or / journals/:id would ensure that I’m going to the the currently logged in user’s journals or measurements? And in turn, what would be the best way of making sure that users can’t type /journal/:id and see another users record once that :user\_id was trimmed off (they should only be able to see their own). Thoughts? I greatly appreciate it. Thanks. Tim K. ---
**Author:** ![sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sinkva)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-access-of-nested-resources/149735/2 "2008-09-29T07:01:30Z")
I’ve never done this but I’ll give my 2 cents anyway: 1. With nested routes, you are always still looking for the user - you fetch it in the Journals controller and that’s where you can evaluate it. What you can do is fetch the current\_user unless the current\_user is an admin or whatever 2. About the routes I’d like to know that… if you always fetch the current\_user it would be possible since you don’t pass the user\_id in the URL anymore, but admins and such wouldn’t be able to see another’s journal. Ramon T. ---
**Author:** ![sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sinkva)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 7:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-access-of-nested-resources/149735/3 "2008-09-29T07:33:10Z")
Ramon - Fetching the current\_user in the Journals controller doesn’t solve the issue, unless I’m misunderstanding you. The current\_user is set to in instance variable called @user so @user.id would be equal to :user\_id within the route. When I call @journals I’m using the relationship to grab the journals suchas @journals = @user.journal. The question is really about the routing not about getting the user\_id in question. I’m trying to take advantage of the restful routes such as user\_journals\_path and all that but without the need to have / users/:user\_id in the url. Does anyone have any experience in doing something like this? On Sep 29, 1:00 am, “Ramon Miguel M. Tayag” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sinkva)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 8:24am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-access-of-nested-resources/149735/4 "2008-09-29T08:24:44Z")
On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 6:45 AM, Tim K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > /user/:user\_id/journals/:id > only be able to see their own). > Two things: 1. A has\_many do not necesseraly mean a nested resource _in your interface_. You can simply configure 2. Access control is implemented via AR finders. In this case you’d do ---
**Author:** ![sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sinkva)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-access-of-nested-resources/149735/5 "2008-09-29T16:16:13Z")
I see Xavior - that’s makes a lot of sense especially with that before\_filter. I’ll refactor a little bit. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@sinkva](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sinkva)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 7:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limiting-access-of-nested-resources/149735/6 "2008-09-29T07:42:33Z")
Another thought I had would be just being able to replace the / users/:user\_id with /profile then there could be /profile/journals/2 or whatever… but profile would be somehow mapped to the users controller passing the @user as it’s default id… am I heading in any form of a sane direction?