# Login forms , redirect\_to and ajax-scaffold problems

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/login-forms-redirect-to-and-ajax-scaffold-problems/86893>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 24, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/login-forms-redirect-to-and-ajax-scaffold-problems/86893 "2006-03-24T21:43:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3da27b/32.png) [@wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wolfmanjm)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/login-forms-redirect-to-and-ajax-scaffold-problems/86893/1 "2006-03-24T21:43:18Z")

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Hi,

I have a standard type authentication technique direct from AWDWR, so  
there is a

before\_filter :authorize\_employee, :except =\> :login in my  
employees\_controller.rb

the authorize\_employee is in application.rb

```
 def authorize_employee
    unless session[:employee_id]
        flash[:notice] = "Please log in"
        # save the URL the user requested so we can hop back to it
        # after login
        session[:jumpto] = request.parameters
        redirect_to(:controller => "employees", :action => "login")
    else
        logger.info "User already authorized as 

```

#{session[:employee\_id]}"  
end  
end

All standard stuff and works as expected most of the time.

Now the problem is that if the session expires and someone clicks on say  
the Create New  
link in the ajax-scaffold (of a page that was already sitting there from  
last time), I  
get the redirect\_to :controller =\> ‘employees’, :action =\> ‘login’, but  
the resulting  
form gets inserted into the existing page as if it were a response from  
an ajax request,  
but a redirect\_to is not generating an ajax request and I expect a new  
page to be  
generated with the login form.

I have been playing with this for hours now, and cannot figure out how  
to get it to put  
up a fresh login screen.

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3da27b/32.png) [@wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wolfmanjm)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/login-forms-redirect-to-and-ajax-scaffold-problems/86893/2 "2006-03-24T23:24:45Z")

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very good question

I think the good option is to use built-in :failure attribute of  
link\_to\_remote that can call redirect function in case of failure

now, it only triggers if the HTTP response is 3xx as oppossed to 2xx  
for example you way want to do this instead of redirect\_to

render\_text ‘’, ‘307 Temporary Redirect’

of course, you need to be sure to use this response only in case of ajax  
request so that regular request is handled by standard redirect\_to

hope this at least points to the right direction and you can get a  
working  
code out of this

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3da27b/32.png) [@wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wolfmanjm)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 11:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/login-forms-redirect-to-and-ajax-scaffold-problems/86893/3 "2006-03-24T23:27:06Z")

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sorry, this syntax is deprecated

should be like

render :nothing =\> true, :status =\> 307

[http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionController/Base.html#M000178](http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionController/Base.html#M000178)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3da27b/32.png) [@wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wolfmanjm)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 12:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/login-forms-redirect-to-and-ajax-scaffold-problems/86893/4 "2006-03-25T00:31:14Z")

</div>

Thanks for the response,

I have tried playing with that, I am not sure if it is an ajax\_scaffold  
problem or not but I can’t get it to work, I even tried this…

\<%= link\_to\_remote “Create New”,  
:url =\> { :controller =\> ‘employees’, :action =\> ‘new’ },  
302 =\> “document.location =  
request.getResponseHeader(‘location’)”,  
:loading =\> “AjaxScaffold.newOnLoading(request,‘employee’);”,  
:success =\> “AjaxScaffold.newOnSuccess(request,‘employee’);”,  
:failure =\> “AjaxScaffold.newOnFailure(request,‘employee’);”,  
:href =\> url\_for(:controller =\> ‘employees’, :action =\> ‘new’),  
:class =\> “create” %\>

Notice the 302 =\> this is meant to force a redirect, but I always get  
the same thing, the login page gets rendered into the existing page.

Maybe I should ask, how do I force a page refresh when an outstanding  
ajax call fails? or gets redirected?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3da27b/32.png) [@wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wolfmanjm)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 7:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/login-forms-redirect-to-and-ajax-scaffold-problems/86893/5 "2006-03-25T07:44:18Z")

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Ok I finally got it thanks…

For anyone else reading this I had to put this in my controller…

render :layout =\> false, :status =\> 302 if request.xhr?

and this in my link\_to\_remote in the rhtml…

|\* 302 =\> “document.location = ‘/employees/login’”,

as in  
\*|

|\* \<%= link\_to\_remote “Create New”,  
{ :url =\> { :controller =\> ‘employees’, :action =\> ‘new’ },  
302 =\> “document.location = ‘/employees/login’”,  
:loading =\> “AjaxScaffold.newOnLoading(request,‘employee’);”,  
:success =\> “AjaxScaffold.newOnSuccess(request,‘employee’);”,  
:failure =\> “AjaxScaffold.newOnFailure(request,‘employee’);” },  
{ :href =\> url\_for(:controller =\> ‘employees’, :action =\> ‘new’),  
:class =\> “create” }%\>  
\*|

I had to hard code the redirection, it would be nice to be able to use  
redirect\_to, but that simply doesn’t work and doesn’t return a response  
code of 302 to the ajax handlers.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3da27b/32.png) [@wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wolfmanjm)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/login-forms-redirect-to-and-ajax-scaffold-problems/86893/6 "2006-03-25T21:55:29Z")

</div>

Thanks,

I did try redirect\_to, however for some reason the ajax callback does  
not see it as an error or a redirect but as success, I tried many  
different things and the one that worked was the render :layout =\>  
false, :status =\> 302 if request.xhr?. This could be a bug in the ajax  
stuff I guess.

In my case I need to distinguish between failures (\>=500) and redirects  
as the ajax scaffold uses errors \>= 500 for error messages, and using  
redirect allows me to catch the login failure specifically.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3da27b/32.png) [@wolfmanjm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wolfmanjm)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 8:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/login-forms-redirect-to-and-ajax-scaffold-problems/86893/7 "2006-03-25T08:18:08Z")

</div>

Good to hear it works - it is easier to simplify now 🙂

Did not try it, but I guess this should work too

\<%= link\_to\_remote “Create New”,  
{ :url =\> { :controller =\> ‘employees’, :action =\> ‘new’ },  
:loading =\> “AjaxScaffold.newOnLoading(request,‘employee’);”,  
:success =\> “AjaxScaffold.newOnSuccess(request,‘employee’);”,  
:failure =\> “document.location = ‘/employees/login’” },  
{ :href =\> url\_for(:controller =\> ‘employees’, :action =\>  
‘new’),  
:class =\> “create” }%\>

You don’t need to hardcode 302 in view as any 3xx is failure.  
By the way, I have just re-checked docs and see that redirect\_to also  
generates 302 header, so you may want to simply try adding :failure  
attribute to the link and see if it works with no changes to  
controller…