# Restful\_authentication falling tests, allowing blank passwords

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restful-authentication-falling-tests-allowing-blank-passwords/128859>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 12, 2008, 6:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restful-authentication-falling-tests-allowing-blank-passwords/128859 "2008-02-12T06:43:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mindel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@mindel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mindel)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 6:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restful-authentication-falling-tests-allowing-blank-passwords/128859/1 "2008-02-12T06:43:49Z")

</div>

All, I’m a bit of a journeyman when it comes to RoR, and I’ve been  
having one issue setting up restful\_authentication that’s making me  
batty. I got most of my direction from the README and Ryan B.’  
railscast[1](http://railscasts.com/episodes/67), but every time I set up an authentication system with  
rails 2.0.2, users are failing one of their unit tests:

```
1) Failure:
test_should_require_password(UserTest)
    [test/unit/user_test.rb:31:in `test_should_require_password'
     /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/

```

rmagickRailsDec2007\_i386.locobundle/framework/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/  
activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active\_support/core\_ext/test/unit/  
assertions.rb:39:in `assert_difference' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/ rmagickRailsDec2007_i386.locobundle/framework/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active_support/core_ext/test/unit/ assertions.rb:58:in `assert\_no\_difference’  
test/unit/user\_test.rb:29:in `test\_should\_require\_password’]:  
 is not true.

This basically allows a you to create a new user with a blank  
password. I threw some logger statements into my model, and this is  
what I’m seeing when the test runs:

```
=== called password_required?
crypted: 'NULL'
crypted blank: false
password:
password blank: true
password nil: true
result: false
====

```

`password_required?` looks like this usually:

```
def password_required?
  crypted_password.blank? || !password.blank?
end

```

and it’s used with:

```
validates_presence_of :password, :if => :password_required?

```

so I’m guessing that with a new user who tries to sign up with a blank  
password, `crypted_password.blank?` is not returning `true`, and so it  
skips this validation. Am I on the right track? Any advice?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mindel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@mindel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mindel)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 6:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/restful-authentication-falling-tests-allowing-blank-passwords/128859/2 "2008-02-12T06:58:28Z")

</div>

On Feb 11, 9:43 pm, Ryan C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> rmagickRailsDec2007\_i386.locobundle/framework/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/
> 
> so I’m guessing that with a new user who tries to sign up with a blank  
> password, `crypted_password.blank?` is not returning `true`, and so it  
> skips this validation. Am I on the right track? Any advice?

A bit of an update… changing `password_required?` to

```
def password_required?
  crypted_password.blank? || crypted_password == "'NULL'" || !

```

password.blank?  
end

Allows all restful\_authentication tests to pass, even the functional  
tests. This still seems a bit odd. Anyone have any thoughts?