# loginGenerator - getting logged in username **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [July 5, 2006, 7:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/logingenerator-getting-logged-in-username/97132 "2006-07-05T07:53:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spacechurro)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 7:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/logingenerator-getting-logged-in-username/97132/1 "2006-07-05T07:53:21Z")
i am working on a site taht uses loginGenerator… it’s a great little package, but i am running into one little problem… i would like to have something that says: "logged in as " in the site, but i am not quite getting it… what i am using is: You are logged in as: \<%= @session[:user] %\> but i have tried: You are logged in as: \<%= session[:user] %\> anyone have any ideas? also… is there a way to get a list of all the current session variables? in php, it would be something like: print\_r($\_SESSION); but i dunno how to do it in rails. thanks! ---
**Author:** ![spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spacechurro)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 8:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/logingenerator-getting-logged-in-username/97132/2 "2006-07-05T08:23:17Z")
On 7/5/06, sergio ruiz [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > You are logged in as: \<%= session[:user] %\> try session[:user].login, or whatever your username column is called. session[:user] contains the user object. > is there a way to get a list of all the current session variables? > > in php, it would be something like: > > print\_r($\_SESSION); > > but i dunno how to do it in rails. p session or puts session.inspect if you want it dumped to the console, \<%= session.inspect %\> if you want it in a webpage. martin ---
**Author:** ![spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spacechurro)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 8:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/logingenerator-getting-logged-in-username/97132/3 "2006-07-05T08:29:09Z")
> p session or puts session.inspect if you want it dumped to the > console, \<%= session.inspect %\> if you want it in a webpage. perfect! thanks, martin… for some reason, i still can’t access login… i will keep at it… thanks again… ---
**Author:** ![spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spacechurro)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 8:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/logingenerator-getting-logged-in-username/97132/4 "2006-07-05T08:35:58Z")
On 7/5/06, sergio ruiz [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > i will keep at it… > > thanks again… Can you post the schema of your user table? martin ---
**Author:** ![spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spacechurro)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 8:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/logingenerator-getting-logged-in-username/97132/5 "2006-07-05T08:41:48Z")
> Can you post the schema of your user table? > > martin yes: CREATE TABLE `users` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL auto\_increment, `login` varchar(80) default NULL, `password` varchar(40) default NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 i might also note that i tried: You are logged in as: \<%= @session[:login] %\> too… thanks! ---
**Author:** ![spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spacechurro)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 10:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/logingenerator-getting-logged-in-username/97132/6 "2006-07-05T10:12:02Z")
> \<%= @session[:user].login %\> should work fine i don’t know why, but i also installed the LoginGenerator (and the ACL system) and for some unexplanitory reason, @session[‘user’] (as apposed to @session[:user]) worked for me. don’t know why, but i hope it helps. either way, the best way at it seems to do @session.inspect and see what name the username/login variable is listed under. good luck, harp ---
**Author:** ![spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spacechurro)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 9:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/logingenerator-getting-logged-in-username/97132/7 "2006-07-05T09:15:29Z")
On 7/5/06, sergio ruiz [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > `login` varchar(80) default NULL, > `password` varchar(40) default NULL, > PRIMARY KEY (`id`) > ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 \<%= @session[:user].login %\> should work fine, then, assuming that session[:user] itself is getting set correctly. martin ---
**Author:** ![spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spacechurro)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 10:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/logingenerator-getting-logged-in-username/97132/8 "2006-07-05T10:53:27Z")
@session[‘user’] is not the same as @session[:user] - it just happens that for many (but NOT all) of the Hash-like objects that Rails creates, they have been tweaked to not care if you’ve given a symbol or a string as the key (HashWithIndifferentAccess is the class of these critters). Try this to prove it to yourself: h = {} # new Hash h[‘a’] = ‘hello’ h[:a] = ‘asta la vista, baby’ puts h.inspect For whatever reason, session is a regular Hash and not at HashWithIndifferentAccess, so you need to know the exact keys (including whether or not it was a String - ‘user’ - or a Symbol - :user). This might help in your views: \<%= debug session %\> James ---
**Author:** ![spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@spacechurro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spacechurro)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/logingenerator-getting-logged-in-username/97132/9 "2006-07-05T17:10:08Z")
> \<%= debug session %\> there is still something stumping me here… i tried this, and got the stuff at the bottom of this post… which looks ok… @session.inspect gives me the second set of output (on bottom of post)… but @session[:login] still gives me nothing… thanks for the help so far. — !ruby/object:CGI::Session data: &id001 user: !ruby/object:User attributes: id: “6” password: **passwordhere** login: sergio\_101 return-to: flash: !map:ActionController::Flash::FlashHash {} dbman: &id002 !ruby/object:CGI::Session::PStore hash: \*id001 p: !ruby/object:PStore abort: false filename: /Users/sergioruiz/Sites/podCaster/public/…/config/…/tmp/sessions//ruby\_sess.6f80be42c9003bb7 rdonly: false table: transaction: false dbprot: - \*id002 new\_session: false session\_id: 6c0a0bdeb66e7d6cf545e9649aaf0137 ##“6”, “password”=\>“ **passwordhere** ”, “login”=\>“sergio\_101”}\>, “return-to”=\>nil, “flash”=\>{}}, @dbman=##“6”, “password”=\>“ **passwordhere** ”, “login”=\>“sergio\_101”}\>, “return-to”=\>nil, “flash”=\>{}}, @p=#\>, @new\_session=false, @session\_id=“6c0a0bdeb66e7d6cf545e9649aaf0137”, @dbprot=[##“6”, “password”=\>“ **passwordhere** ”, “login”=\>“sergio\_101”}\>, “return-to”=\>nil, “flash”=\>{}}, @p=#\>]\>