FAQ

Frequently asked questions

• When I start Rails using server, console, whatever, I get this error:
• Is it possible to have two different sets of roles in one application?
• Why rolify doesn't support ruby 1.8 ?
• Does rolify support Single Table Inheritance (STI) ?
• Is it possible to use UUID with rolify?
• Install rolify in a Rails Engine

When I start Rails using server, console, whatever, I get this error:

undefined local variable or method `rolify' for User:Class

If you are using Mongoid ORM, make sure you load rolify (using the rolify method) after Mongoid::Document include in the User class. For example:

class User
  include Mongoid::Document
  rolify
end

If you are using ActiveRecord, you should not get this error, please fill a bug

---

method_missing': undefined local variable or method scopify' for #Class:0x007ff921536890 (NameError)

If you get this error, you're probably using less-rails < v2.4.2 or react-rails gem, there is a conflict in these gems railtie with rolify's one. Add this to your application.rb:

require 'rolify/railtie'

---

Is it possible to have two different sets of roles in one application?

If you have two different User classes, let's say User and AdminUser, yes it is. To make it work, you'll also need two Role classes (Role and AdminRole), and therefore two tables in the database (and two migration files if you're using ActiveRecord). To make it easier, just run the generator twice:

• rails g rolify Role User
• rails g rolify AdminRole AdminUser

In your User model, add rolify as usual, since Role is the default rolify Role class In your AdminUser model, add rolify :role_cname => "AdminRole" to specify your alternate Role class

You may wish to give a class roles while using it as a scope for another class' roles.

For example, you might have a User class with a rolify Role table and an Account class with a rolify Plan table. An User might have the role :admin but only scoped to that user's Account, while the account in turn has the role :platinum.

In this case you will have to call resourcify and rolify on the same model, Account. Here the order of the calls in your model is significant! This order will work:

resourcify
rolify role_cname: "Plan"

However, this order will not:

rolify role_cname: "Plan"
resourcify

Finally, if you want to use a class as a resource for a rolify class called anything but the default, you'll need to specify it in your call:

resourcify :plans, role_cname: 'Plan'

---

Why doesn't rolify support ruby 1.8 ?

Mongoid >= 2.0 requires ruby 1.9, that's why rolify dropped ruby 1.8 support to maintain the dependency. Moreover, upcoming Rails 4.0 will drop ruby 1.8 support too. Although rolify doesn't necessarily use ruby 1.9 specific features or syntax, I quit enforcing the compatibility for these 2 reasons. In the case you have to use 1.8 for whatever reason, this repository hosts a fork of rolify supporting ruby 1.8. Don't expect it to be maintained heavily tho.

---

Does rolify support STI ?

If you use ActiveRecord STI and add rolify method only in the superclass, you should use becomes AR method before using any rolify commands, like this:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  rolify
  ...
end

class UserTypeOne < User
  ....
end

class UserTypeTwo < User
  ....
end

user = UserTypeTwo.find(1)
base_user = user.becomes(User)
base_user.add_role :admin 

---

Is it possible to use UUID with rolify?

Sure! You just need to fix your migration file. In example below - we have models Role and User:

class RolifyCreateRoles < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :roles, id: :uuid do |t|
      t.string :name
      t.uuid :resource_id
      t.string :resource_type

      t.timestamps
    end

    create_table(:users_roles, :id => false) do |t|
      t.uuid :user_id
      t.uuid :role_id
    end

    add_index(:roles, :name)
    add_index(:roles, [ :name, :resource_type, :resource_id ])
    add_index(:users_roles, [ :user_id, :role_id ])
  end
end

---

Install rolify in a Rails Engine

1. Run the generator as such

rails generate rolify Role YourEngineName::User

2. Add the following to your user.rb file

rolify role_cname: 'YourEngineName::Role'

3. Add the following to lib/yourenginename.rb

require 'rolify'