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Asked: 2026-05-20T00:45:04+00:00

I have a controller like this, but no model class backing it. class UserInviteController

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I have a controller like this, but no model class backing it. 

class UserInviteController < ApplicationController  
  def process_email  
     authorize! :process_email, :abc  
     ...
     method body
     ...
  end
end

In my ability class, I have 

can :process_email, :abc if user.role == 1

I am following the wiki Non RESTful Controllers authorization by Cancan and it says that you can pass a symbol as the second argument to both authorize! and can.

It doesn’t have to be a model class or instance.

Generally the first argument is the “action” one is trying to perform
and
the second argument is the “subject” the action is being performed on. It can be anything.

I have done the same, but still It doesn’t work.
NOTE: I also tried doing it the other way round by

authorize_resource :class => false

as said in the wiki, but that also doesn’t work.

If its of any help, my controller doesn’t have any actions like show, new, create or any other basic CRUD actions.
Cancan: 1.4.1

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I tried to debug following the link Debugging Abilities and figured out what was wrong.

    The abilities were correct, I was doing a small mistake by specifying them in the wrong order.

    For others coming on to this page, if you face any problems with Cancan abilities not working, try to debug using the above link. You will eventually figure out whats not working and why.

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