Hobo's Miscellaneous Controller Extensions
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This chapter of the Hobo Manual describes Hobo's controller extensions.

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   doctest: prepare testapp environment
   doctest_require: '../prepare_testapp'
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# Authentication support

## authorized?

This method checks if the user is authorized. It returns true by default. Override this method in your controllers if you want to restrict access to only a few actions or if you want to check if the user has the correct rights.

Example:

      # only allow nonbobs
      def authorized?
        current_user.login != "bob"
      end

## login_required

This is used as a filter to control authentication.

To require logins for all actions, use this in your controllers:

    before_filter :login_required

To require logins for specific actions, use this in your controllers:

    before_filter :login_required, :only => [ :edit, :update ]

To skip this in a subclassed controller:

    skip_before_filter :login_required



## store_location

Store the URI of the current request in the session. We can return to this location by calling #redirect_back_or_default.



## redirect_back_or_default(default)

Redirect to the URI stored by the most recent store_location call or to the passed default.




## login_from_cookie and authenticated_user_from_cookie

When called with before_filter, `login_from_cookie` will call `authenticated_user_from_cookie` to check for
an `auth_token` cookie, and if the result is appropiate, it will log the user in.

See the [controller section in Users and Authentication](/manual/users_and_authentication#hobo_user_controller) for more information

## create_auth_cookie

Populates `cookies[:auth_token]` with `current_user` data.



See also the [Hobo User Controller section](/manual/users_and_authentication#hobo_user_controller) in the Users and Authentication manual.


# Cache

## expire_swept_caches_for(obj, attr=nil)

This method is to be used in the controller as a partner to the `<swept-cache>` tag. 
Refer to the `<swept-cache>` taglib for more information.



# Model

## Introduction to the Hobo Model Controller Module

Adding `hobo_model_controller` to one of your controllers will include this module

This module uses `def included(base)` to run some code in the context of the current controller. Some interesting stuff:
* Defines @auto_actions as an empty hash if it's not already defined.
* Runs `extend ClassMethods` to add the ClassMethods module to the current controller.
* Adds a couple of helpers: `:model, :current_user`
* Rescues from some errors: `ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, Hobo::Model::Lifecycles::LifecycleKeyError`
* Loads some subsite magic

## Class Methods


### model_name and model

`model_name` returns `model.name.underscore`

`model` returns `@model` or `controller_name.camelcase.singularize.constantize`


### autocomplete

This is the action called by the `<name-one>` tag to autocomplete results. See [Autocompleters](/manual/controllers#autocompleters) section in the controller manual.


### web_method

See [Web methods](/manual/controllers#web_methods) in the Controller manual.



### auto_actions

See [Selecting the automatic actions](/manual/controllers#selecting_the_automatic_actions) in the Controller manual.


### def_lifecycle_actions

See [Lifecycles](/manual/controllers#lifecycles) in the Controller manual.


## Instance Methods

### find_instance

If your model is Foo, this method is equivalent to

    Foo.find(params[:id])

in the simple case.   However, it also understands owned routes and sets `acting_user`.

    @foo = find_instance

is quite frequently the first line a custom Hobo controller action.


### re_render_form

If you have errors on your page, you can call this helper to re-render the view that contains the source form, with errors highlighted.


### destination_after_submit

Contains the logic for [Automatic Redirects](/manual/controllers#automatic_redirects).


### parse_sort_param

Converts params[:sort] from the form used by `<table-plus>` into a form suitable to be passed to the [order_by](/manual/scopes#order_by) scope.

Simple usage is to pass a list of field names, however the last parameter can be a hash which maps from field name to database column name.

    parse_sort_param(:title, :isbn, :author => "authors.last_name")

`parse_sort_param` accepts dotted field names, automatically pluralizing to determine the database column.

    Story.include(:tasks).order_by(parse_sort_param("task.title"))

will sort on `task.title` as long as :tasks is included or joined to the scope