Unable to create user object in rails backend using JWT authentication - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am trying to create User objects in a rails PostgreSQL database using JWT authentication. When I fire the create user method from my React frontend the user is not created in the backend and I suspect this has something to do with how my controllers are set up.
Here is my User controller in my Rails backend:
class Api::V1::UsersController < ApplicationController
before_action :find_user, only: [:show]
skip_before_action :authorized, only: [:index, :create]
def index
#users = User.all
render json: #users
end
def show
render json: #user
end
def create
#user = User.create(user_params)
if #user.valid?
#token = encode_token(user_id: #user.id)
render json: { user: UserSerializer.new(#user), jwt: #token }, status: :created
else
render json: {error: "Could not create user"}, status: :unprocessible_entity
end
end
end
private
def user_params
params.permit(:username, :password)
end
def find_user
#user = User.find(params[:id])
end
Here is my 'auth' controller for JWT:
class Api::V1::AuthController < ApplicationController
skip_before_action :authorized, only: [:create]
def create # POST /api/v1/login
#user = User.find_by(username: user_login_params[:username])
if #user && #user.authenticate(user_login_params[:password])
#token = encode_token({ user_id: #user.id })
render json: { user: UserSerializer.new(#user), jwt: #token }, status: :accepted
else
render json: { message: 'Invalid username or password' }, status: :unauthorized
end
end
private
def user_login_params
params.require(:user).permit(:username, :password)
end
end
And my application controller (I suspect the issue is here and has to do with the way in which I am encoding and decoding the tokens):
class ApplicationController < ActionController::API
before_action :authorized
def encode_token(payload)
JWT.encode(payload, ENV["jwt_secret"])
end
def auth_header
request.headers['Authorization']
end
def decoded_token
if auth_header()
token = auth_header.split(' ')[1]
begin
JWT.decode(token, ENV["jwt_secret"], true, algorithm: 'HS256')
rescue JWT::DecodeError
nil
end
end
end
def current_user
if decoded_token()
user_id = decoded_token[0]['user_id']
#user = User.find_by(id: user_id)
else
nil
end
end
def logged_in?
!!current_user
end
def authorized
render json: { message: 'Please log in' }, status: :unauthorized unless logged_in?
end
end
From my front-end I am using a fetch method to POST to the /users/ endpoint like so:
export const signupUser = (username, password) => {
return(dispatch) => {
const data = {user: {username, password} }
fetch('http://localhost:3000/api/v1/users',{
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
Accept: 'application/json'
},
body: JSON.stringify(data)
})
.then(r=>r.json())
.then(r=>{
localStorage.setItem('jwt', r.jwt)
dispatch({
type: SET_CURRENT_USER,
payload: r.user
})
})
}
}
Apologies that this is long-winded. I wanted to include all the code necessary to figure this out. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I noticed you are not saving your user object when you using a function to create user. Please check app/controllers/api/v1/users_controller.rb and modify following with valid to save method
def create
#user = User.create(user_params)
if #user.valid?
#token = encode_token(user_id: #user.id)
render json: { user: UserSerializer.new(#user), jwt: #token }, status: :created
else
render json: {error: "Could not create user"}, status: :unprocessible_entity
end
end
Change the line #user.valid? to #user.save
def create
#user = User.create(user_params)
if #user.save
#token = encode_token(user_id: #user.id)
render json: { user: UserSerializer.new(#user), jwt: #token }, status: :created
else
render json: {error: "Could not create user"}, status: :unprocessible_entity
end
end
Please note .valid? is used to validate and check if any error, and .save is used to save it. You are just checking validation and not actually saving, validation happen automatically so there is no need for this method here.