Create users without a password in Rails - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have three user roles defined using enums and a single users table with STI. My three user roles are staff, clinician, and listed. The aim is that staff will upload lists of names and emails which will create users of role listed. Once these listed users create their own passwords, their role will change to clinician.
I am working on adjusting my model and controller to allow to create these listed users but running into difficulty as most of the answers I've found deal with a Devise implementation. I am using an authentication system mostly built with Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial. Do you have any tips on how I can get this to work? Currently when I try to sign up as a listed user, I get the following error:
unknown attribute 'password' for Listed.
def create
#user = User.new(user_params)
if #user.save
#user.send_activation_email
flash[:info] = "Please check your email to activate your account."
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Here are my user models:
class User < ApplicationRecord
self.inheritance_column = :role
enum role: { Staff: 0, Clinician: 1, Listed: 2 }
attr_accessor :remember_token, :activation_token, :reset_token
before_save :downcase_email
before_create :create_activation_digest
validates :name, presence: true, length: { maximum: 50 }
VALID_EMAIL_REGEX = /\A[\w+\-.]+#[a-z\d\-]+(\.[a-z\d\-]+)*\.[a-z]+\z/i
validates :email, presence: true, length: { maximum: 255 },
format: { with: VALID_EMAIL_REGEX },
uniqueness: { case_sensitive: false }
validates :role, presence: true
# Returns the hash digest of the given string.
def User.digest(string)
cost = ActiveModel::SecurePassword.min_cost ? BCrypt::Engine::MIN_COST :
BCrypt::Engine.cost
BCrypt::Password.create(string, cost: cost)
end
# Returns a random token.
def User.new_token
SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64
end
# Remembers a user in the database for use in persistent sessions.
def remember
self.remember_token = User.new_token
update_attribute(:remember_digest, User.digest(remember_token))
end
# Returns true if the given token matches the digest.
def authenticated?(remember_token)
return false if remember_digest.nil?
BCrypt::Password.new(remember_digest).is_password?(remember_token)
end
# Forgets a user.
def forget
update_attribute(:remember_digest, nil)
end
# Returns true if the given token matches the digest.
def authenticated?(attribute, token)
digest = send("#{attribute}_digest")
return false if digest.nil?
BCrypt::Password.new(digest).is_password?(token)
end
# Activates an account.
def activate
update_attribute(:activated, true)
update_attribute(:activated_at, Time.zone.now)
end
# Sends activation email.
def send_activation_email
UserMailer.account_activation(self).deliver_now
end
# Sets the password reset attributes.
def create_reset_digest
self.reset_token = User.new_token
update_attribute(:reset_digest, User.digest(reset_token))
update_attribute(:reset_sent_at, Time.zone.now)
end
# Sends password reset email.
def send_password_reset_email
UserMailer.password_reset(self).deliver_now
end
# Returns true if a password reset has expired.
def password_reset_expired?
reset_sent_at < 2.hours.ago
end
def feed
ReferralRequest.where("user_id = ?", id)
end
private
# Converts email to all lower-case.
def downcase_email
self.email = email.downcase
end
# Creates and assigns the activation token and digest.
def create_activation_digest
self.activation_token = User.new_token
self.activation_digest = User.digest(activation_token)
end
end
class Staff < User
validates :university_id, presence: true
belongs_to :university
has_many :referral_requests
has_secure_password
validates :password, presence: true, length: { minimum: 6 }, allow_nil: true
end
class Clinician < User
has_many :lists
has_many :universities, through: :lists
has_secure_password
validates :password, presence: true, length: { minimum: 6 }, allow_nil: true
end
class Listed < User
has_many :lists
has_many :universities, through: :lists
end
Here is my users controller:
class UsersController < ApplicationController
before_action :logged_in_user, only: [:show, :index, :edit, :update, :destroy]
before_action :correct_user, only: [:edit, :update]
def index
#users = User.paginate(page: params[:page])
end
def show
#user = User.find(params[:id])
#referral_requests = #user.referral_requests.paginate(page: params[:page])
end
def new
#user = User.new
end
def create
#user = User.new(user_params)
if #user.save
#user.send_activation_email
flash[:info] = "Please check your email to activate your account."
redirect_to root_url
else
render 'new'
end
end
def edit
end
def update
if #user.update_attributes(user_params)
flash[:success] = "Profile updated"
redirect_to #user
else
render 'edit'
end
end
def destroy
User.find(params[:id]).destroy
flash[:success] = "User deleted"
redirect_to users_url
end
private
def user_params
params.require(:user).permit(:name, :email, :role, :university_id, :password, :password_confirmation)
end
# Before filters
# Confirms the correct user.
def correct_user
#user = User.find(params[:id])
redirect_to(root_url) unless current_user?(#user)
end
end

Answer 1

I'm not sure if STI is the best approach to manage roles, anyway, if your User class has the attribute password and you are correctly making the inheritance, Listed should have that attribute too.
Your Listed model should look like this:
Class Listed < User
end
Same for all your models that inherit from User