Question

I have a very basic sign up and log in setup running and all I want to know if how to add a link at the very top of my root page that displays ‘Log in’ or ‘Sign out’ depending on whether the user is logged in or not.

I have tried various methods I have found on here but can’t seem to get them to work as they often create undefined method errors.

What is the simplest way to create this?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Tom

Answer 1

if you have a session variable where you save the id of the current user (i call it user_id) you could do it like this:

<% if session[:user_id] %>
  <!-- user is logged in -->
  <%= link_to logout_path %>
<% else %>
  <!-- user is not logged in -->
  <%= link_to login_path %>
<% end %>

that is what you have to change:

config/routes.rb:

resources :users

# login stuff
controller :sessions do
    get "login" => "sessions#new"
    post "login" => "sessions#create"
    delete "logout" => "sessions#destroy"
end

---

app/views/sessions/new.html.erb:
# replace this line
<%= form_tag new_session_path do %>
# with
<%= form_tag login_path do %>

---

the login link is now:
<%= link_to "Login", login_path %>
the logout link:
<%= link_to "Logout", logout_path, :method => :delete %>