Question

Could someone please explain for me what is happening here?

i feel like the documentation doesnt mention a lot or describe what is happening. it just say use this method like this.

what will happen if username and password are true, what will happen if false etc?

class AdminController < ApplicationController
  USERNAME, PASSWORD = "humbaba", "5baa61e4"

  before_filter :authenticate

  private

  def authenticate
    authenticate_or_request_with_http_basic do |username, password|
      username == USERNAME &&
      Digest::SHA1.hexdigest(password) == PASSWORD
    end
  end
end

thanks

Answer 1

The before_filter method ensures that the private method authenticate is run before all requests.

authenticate_or_request_with_http_basic pops up the browser’s “enter your username and password” box, and passes them into the block, as username and password, in this case.

If the block returns true (if the username and password match), the request proceeds to your more specific code. If the block returns false (the username and password don’t match), the request is cut short, and an authentication failure page with the correct HTTP status code is returned. The browser may retry the request a few more times before showing the failure page.