# What authentication plugin/framework do you use?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-authentication-plugin-framework-do-you-use/102729>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 27, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-authentication-plugin-framework-do-you-use/102729 "2007-03-27T18:30:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jake\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4491bb/32.png) [@Jake\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jake_C)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-authentication-plugin-framework-do-you-use/102729/1 "2007-03-27T18:30:13Z")

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Very interested in seeing what you are using and why. We’re trying to  
choose  
ourselves, but having trouble coming to a conclusion.

Thanks guys.

Jake

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**Author:** ![Jake\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4491bb/32.png) [@Jake\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jake_C)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-authentication-plugin-framework-do-you-use/102729/2 "2007-03-28T00:20:08Z")

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Jake C. wrote:

> Very interested in seeing what you are using and why. We’re trying to  
> choose  
> ourselves, but having trouble coming to a conclusion.
> 
> Thanks guys.
> 
> Jake

I have always used acts\_as\_authenticated but just given  
restful\_authentication a go for a new app and I am liking it so far!

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**Author:** ![Jake\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4491bb/32.png) [@Jake\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jake_C)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 3:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-authentication-plugin-framework-do-you-use/102729/3 "2007-03-28T03:10:42Z")

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We looked at several, including roll-your-own (a la Agile book and  
[http://www.aidanf.net/rails\_user\_authentication\_tutorial](http://www.aidanf.net/rails_user_authentication_tutorial)), and of  
course, acts\_as\_authenticated and some of its descendants. Also looked  
at SaltedHashLoginGenerator.

I really wanted something higher level so I kept looking. Reviewed  
Writertopia [writertopia](http://www.writertopia.com/developers/authorization) and  
Hobo [http://hobocentral.net/](http://hobocentral.net/)

All those are interesting possibilities.

But we’re converging on Goldberg [http://goldberg.240gl.org/](http://goldberg.240gl.org/)

It’s a generator not a plugin (maybe eventually…) It seems like a  
pretty active project, well designed, and 0.2 is promised to come out  
soon. I’ve been toying with it and think it’ll provide a good  
foundation for our upcoming project.

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**Author:** ![Jake\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4491bb/32.png) [@Jake\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jake_C)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 11:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-authentication-plugin-framework-do-you-use/102729/4 "2007-03-28T11:36:43Z")

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For our app [SugarStats.com](http://SugarStats.com) we initially used auth\_generator 2.0 and it  
worked for a while. It has a lot of very common and useful features  
(password recovery, built in user icons, built in admin area etc) but  
it wasn’t the best for extending.

We did a huge refactoring and now use restful\_authentication (based on  
acts\_as\_authenticated) for everything. It has been great and is  
really easy to extend to your own needs.