CanCanCan VS Devise

https://github.com/CanCanCommunity/cancancan (Ruby on Rails ABAC) Same like casl.js, but for Ruby on Rails! Casl.js was actually inspired and modeled by cancancan.

For authorization, I'm going back and forth with Pundit and CanCanCan

This code mounts the Flipper UI at the /flipper endpoint in your application. The RoleConstraint class is used to restrict access to the UI to users who have the manage role. You can customize this constraint to suit your specific needs. In this case, we're using the CanCanCan gem to gate specific routes to admin users. If you haven't worked with CanCanCan before, ignore the RoleConstraint portion.

Would you do : 1. a roles table with the name of the role and 64 booleans? 2. A roles table with one JSON field? (using rails json data type) 3. A roles table and a permissions table, similar do what is suggested in the cancancan developpers guide:

Expressing authorization rules can be a bit challenging with the use of other authorization gems, such as pundit or cancancan. The resource_policy gem provides a more concise and expressive policy definition that uses a simple block-based syntax that makes it easy to understand and write authorization rules for each attribute.

https://github.com/CanCanCommunity/cancancan (Ruby on Rails ABAC) Same like casl.js, but for Ruby on Rails! Casl.js was actually inspired and modeled by cancancan.

In production code you would most likely use a library for access control, such as CanCanCan

PS If you do mobile / web work (or something else with "detached" UI), I find that declarative access control rules are far superior to imperative ones, because they can be serialized and shipped over the wire. For example, backend running cancancan can be easily send the same rules to casl on the frontend, while if you used something like pundit to secure your backend, you either end up re-implementing it in the frontend, or sending ton of "canEdit" flags with every record.

You can use a gem like cancancan (https://github.com/CanCanCommunity/cancancan )to manage authorization, and its helpers to show stuff based on what a user can do

However for smaller apps it might be an overkill. In "real-life" production systems, overengineering is one of the biggest crimes. This is true any framework and technology, so in Rails you might want to use Rodauth since it is big and interesting and challenging, but then again, if you are building a simple greenfield MVP you do not have the time or need, for a big, complex solution. In those cases Rails developers usually go for Devise. It is one of the most known Rails gems, in multiple Rails surveys it was both number 1 in popularity, likability and "most frustrating" rankings.

Since Rails 7, there's more and more tooling that enables us, developers, to roll our own authentication. Devise is great and has been an amazing companion over the years. It also has this neat little feature - an authenticated route constraint which "hides" certain routes from people that are not signed in.

[changelog] https://github.com/heartcombo/devise/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md [upgrade guide] https://github.com/heartcombo/devise/wiki/How-To:-Upgrade-to-Devise-4.9.0-%5BHotwire-Turbo-integration%5D

As much as this article is about user authorization, there's something important we need to cover: user authentication. Without it, any authorization policies we try to define later on will be useless. But there is no need to write authentication from scratch. Let's use Devise.

With around 50 new gems released daily, it is common to use trending libraries for managing everyday tasks. You probably use Devise for authentication, Cancan for authorization, Kaminari for pagination, or run tests with Rspec.

Devise is an authentication library built on top of Warden, a Rack-based authentication framework.

devise: An authentication library designed for Rails

I used Devise, this is a Ruby on Rails app

In this article, we will explore how to implement authentication in a Rails 7 application using the popular devise gem. Authentication is a crucial aspect of web development, allowing users to securely access and interact with your application. By following this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to set up devise, configure authentication routes, create user models, and enhance your application with authentication features.