# Not logged in in subdomain?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/not-logged-in-in-subdomain/162649>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 12, 2009, 12:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/not-logged-in-in-subdomain/162649 "2009-03-12T12:38:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![philswenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@philswenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/philswenson)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 12:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/not-logged-in-in-subdomain/162649/1 "2009-03-12T12:38:59Z")

</div>

For some reason my users get logged out when they switch to a  
subdomain.  
I have this in my environment:

```
config.action_controller.session = {
  :session_key => '_app_session',
  :session_domain => 'mydomain.com',
  :secret => 'xxxx'
}

```

Which I thought would cover that…

help!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![philswenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@philswenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/philswenson)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/not-logged-in-in-subdomain/162649/2 "2009-03-12T14:01:56Z")

</div>

On Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:38:15 -0700 (PDT)  
phil [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> For some reason my users get logged out when they switch to a  
> subdomain.

You need to specify a wildcard domain for your auth cookie. The default  
is to use the entire domain.

Here’s a blog post explaining how:

> **[Cookie handling in multi-domain applications in Ruby on Rails](https://szeryf.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/cookie-handling-in-multi-domain-applications-in-ruby-on-rails/)**
>
> My team is working on a multilingual multinational application in Rails (I know this sounds incredibly pushy but bear with me). The application is at susuh.de if you want to have a look at it, but …

SH

–  
Starr H.  
My blog: [http://starrhorne.com](http://starrhorne.com)  
Check out my Helpdesk RailsKit: [http://railskits.com/helpdesk/](http://railskits.com/helpdesk/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![philswenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@philswenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/philswenson)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 2:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/not-logged-in-in-subdomain/162649/3 "2009-03-13T14:09:27Z")

</div>

thanks! I was missing the .  
I’ll give that a try

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![philswenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@philswenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/philswenson)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 11:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/not-logged-in-in-subdomain/162649/4 "2009-03-22T11:53:41Z")

</div>

This is still not working for us.

we have:

if RAILS\_ENV == ‘production’  
config.action\_controller.session = {  
:session\_key =\> ‘\_site\_session’,  
:session\_domain =\> ‘.site.com’,  
:secret =\> ‘xxxxx’  
}  
else  
config.action\_controller.session = {  
:session\_key =\> ‘\_site\_session’,  
:session\_domain =\> ‘.site.local’,  
:secret =\> ‘xxxxx’  
}  
end

and when users switch between sub domains or between no subdomain (we  
don’t use www… maybe that is the problem?) and a subdomain they need  
to log in again.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![philswenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@philswenson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/philswenson)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 1:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/not-logged-in-in-subdomain/162649/5 "2009-05-04T13:06:09Z")

</div>

Like I say, we are having no luck with this.  
I am going to post a job on oDesk to hire someone to fix it… unless  
anyone wants to apply directly to me.