# What is protected?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-protected/97344>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 6, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-protected/97344 "2006-07-06T14:21:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-protected/97344/1 "2006-07-06T14:21:43Z")

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In [http://www.aidanf.net/rails\_user\_authentication\_tutorial](http://www.aidanf.net/rails_user_authentication_tutorial) there is the  
string/method

protected

in the model. What does it do? Can’t find that in  
[http://api.rubyonrails.org/](http://api.rubyonrails.org/).

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**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-protected/97344/2 "2006-07-06T14:51:19Z")

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This is OOP visibility encapsulate mechanism.  
Learn more at:  
[Object-oriented programming - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming).

On 7/6/06, Pål Bergström [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> * * *
> 
> Rails mailing list  
> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
> [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)

–  
Everton J. Carpes  
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[http://projects.ossystems.com.br](http://projects.ossystems.com.br)

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**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-protected/97344/3 "2006-07-06T15:06:04Z")

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Everton J. Carpes wrote:

> This is OOP visibility encapsulate mechanism.  
> Learn more at:  
> [Object-oriented programming - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming).

thanks 🙂

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**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-protected/97344/4 "2006-07-06T15:16:28Z")

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Protected methods can only be invoked via the class itself (and  
friends).

Practically, in rails controllers, this means the method can’t be  
accessed via the web.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-protected/97344/5 "2006-07-06T15:23:14Z")

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Pål Bergström wrote:

> In [http://www.aidanf.net/rails\_user\_authentication\_tutorial](http://www.aidanf.net/rails_user_authentication_tutorial) there is the  
> string/method
> 
> protected
> 
> in the model. What does it do? Can’t find that in  
> [http://api.rubyonrails.org/](http://api.rubyonrails.org/).

It’s a feature of Ruby, not of Rails.

Within a class definition, it marks the following methods as protected  
(i.e. accessible to that class and its subclasses, not accessible to  
other classes).

‘public’ (accessible to any class) and ‘private’ (accessible only to  
this class) work similarly.

In Rails controllers you should take care to make methods that are not  
to be used as actions via HTTP either private or protected.

regards

Justin

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**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-protected/97344/6 "2006-07-06T17:41:31Z")

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Inge Jørgensen wrote:

> Protected methods can only be invoked via the class itself (and  
> friends).
> 
> Practically, in rails controllers, this means the method can’t be  
> accessed via the web.

Not sure I follow.