# Seperation of application specific view/controller stuff

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seperation-of-application-specific-view-controller-stuff/63497>\
**Category:** Engines\
**Created:** [January 20, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seperation-of-application-specific-view-controller-stuff/63497 "2006-01-20T21:09:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bakki](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@bakki](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bakki)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seperation-of-application-specific-view-controller-stuff/63497/1 "2006-01-20T21:09:31Z")

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I installed both login and user engines and got them working. Thanks for  
an excellent job! Now, I have some questions on how to customize them  
without breaking the code or making future upgrades messy. I have  
several questions and any help will be greatly appreciated. I am  
designing a student registration app for a community college.

First the view stuff. I’d like the signup/login/logout/change password  
to be available via a sidebar. Basically I am trying to make this app  
feel like a desktop all using Ajax.

I would like to have a lot more fields in the user table for the user  
(student) profile and preferably I’d like to put the edit form right in  
the side bar using an Ajax call. I currently have my cart for courses  
chosen in the side bar and I’d like the whole login system to work in a  
similar fashion. For example can I make a link\_to\_remote Ajax call to  
:controller =\> user :action =\> signup and have it replace a div inside  
my sidebar? How would I create a partial for that? If the rhtml files  
are in my app/views will the engine know how to find it or is there a  
configuration option for it?

Next the controller stuff, it says in the UserController to overide the  
home action. I’d like the home to be Catalog/welcome. How do I overide  
this?

With regard to the user\_engine, I’d like students to be able to self  
register and access their own records (both profiles and course  
selections). The college staff can access ALL registrations and also the  
courses database. So the admin creates staff users with these  
permissions. I don’t need the guest role and the user role. Admin will  
define a student role for the self registration. Can I delete the  
default user and guest roles? How do I make registering students  
automatically be assigned this role?

Thank you in advance,

bakki kudva