Using hidden fields to pass values

Rails
1

Hi guys,

Another question from a newbie.

I need to update a div on my page which gets updated regularly. So what
I’ve done is to create a hidden field which technically just contains
the user_id. This field doesn’t change. I was planning of pulling that
text field user_id data and putting it into params but it keeps on
giving me a nil value.

Is there a technique I could use to be able to get the value with no
real event?

thanks,

Bing

2

Is there a reason that you would not do this in sessions? (Like the
update is entirely on the client side) If you can then this is the way
that it is normally done.

ActsAsAuthenticated by technoweenie is a great resource to see an
example of how a simple authentication system works. There are
others, user engine is a popular solution.

If you check these out it will give you some good ideas