Question

I must be missing something out about the operator && in ruby (which I doubt is the cause of this behavior)?

This code:
anonymous && user_signed_in?
does not generate the output wether it is in the before_filter of the application_controller or in an action of the home controller.

And I do not understant why.

Details:

I added this code in the application controller and it would runs as a before_filter

anonymous = cookies['anonymous']
fresh_session = cookies['session_id'].nil?
rep = (fresh_session || (anonymous && user_signed_in?))
puts "REPONSE : #{rep}  session: #{fresh_session}  anonym #{anonymous} is there a curr user: #{user_signed_in?} /// BOTH: #{(anonymous && user_signed_in?)}"

the printed resulte is:

REPONSE : true  session: false  anonym false is there a curr user: true /// BOTH: true

If the same code is in an action of the home controller
the printed result is:

REPONSE : false  session: false  anonym false is there a curr user: true /// BOTH: false

Please help me understand.

Edit (Following Klochne’s request):

In the app_controller:

Anon-class: String REPONSE : true  session: false  anonym false is there a curr user: true /// BOTH: true

In the home_controller

Anon-class: FalseClass REPONSE : false  session: false  anonym false is there a curr user: true /// BOTH: false

So one interprets it as a string for some reason.

Answer 1

Try setting the variables in the before filter as instance variables instead of local variables. That way they will persist and stay set in the controller action as opposed to instance variables. So change the method being called with before_filter to be this:

@anonymous = cookies['anonymous']
@fresh_session = cookies['session_id'].nil?
@rep = (fresh_session || (anonymous && user_signed_in?))
puts "REPONSE : #{@rep}  session: #{@fresh_session}  anonym #{@anonymous} is there a curr user: #{user_signed_in?} /// BOTH: #{(@anonymous && user_signed_in?)}"

And then in your controller you can just put this line again:

puts "REPONSE : #{@rep}  session: #{@fresh_session}  anonym #{@anonymous} is there a curr user: #{user_signed_in?} /// BOTH: #{(@anonymous && user_signed_in?)}"

And it should print out the same results. Local variables are only accessible from within the block of its initialization.