How can I make a rails authors resource a devise user? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have setup a rails application with devise on it so users can register and login and they can add posts and other resources based on their roles(Admin,Teacher,Author,Pupil). Admin as access to everything and I am using gem 'cancan' for roles.
if user.role
if user.role.name == "Admin"
can :manage, :all
elsif user.role.name == "Teacher"
can :manage, [Book, Story]
can :read, [Book, Author, Story]
elsif user.role.name == "Author"
can :manage, [Book, Author]
can :read, [Book, Author, Story]
elsif user.role.name == "Pupil"
can :manage, [Story]
can :read, [Book, Author, Story]
elsif user
can :read, :all
end
else
can :read, :all
end
Currently Authors are just added to a book when you create the book. In the backend you just add authors as many as you like and then assign that to a book. If your an admin you can edit authors details and if your an author you can edit your own profile area in your author resource but there is no login for an author to do this at all.
What I want to know is: Is it easy to create a devise user type like author from authors already added to the backend or will they need to be created all over again?
=== Edit below here ====
user.rb
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :role
def confirmation_required?
false
end
# Include default devise modules. Others available are:
# :confirmable, :lockable, :timeoutable and :omniauthable
devise :database_authenticatable, :registerable,
:recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable, :confirmable
has_attached_file :avatar, styles: {
large: "600x450#",
medium: "250x250#",
small: "100x100#"
}, :default_url => "/images/:style/filler.png"
#validates_attachment_content_type :avatar, :content_type => ["image/jpg", "image/jpeg", "image/png", "image/gif"]
validates_attachment_content_type :avatar, :content_type => /\Aimage\/.*\Z/
validates :avatar, :email, :username, :password, presence: true
end
role.rb
class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :users
end
author.rb
class Author < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :books, dependent: :destroy
has_many :ideas, dependent: :destroy
accepts_nested_attributes_for :books
accepts_nested_attributes_for :ideas
validates_uniqueness_of :name
has_attached_file :avatar, :styles => { :large => "980x760", :medium => "300x300>", :thumb => "100x100>" }, :default_url => "/images/:style/missing.png"
validates_attachment_content_type :avatar, :content_type => /\Aimage\/.*\Z/
end
Thanks
Mark

Answer 1

You don't need to create separate model(Author) just to handle author logins.
Better approach will be using associations in this case.
#user_role.rb
class UserRole < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :users
end
#user.rb
Class User < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user_role
end
Typical user model attributes will be
User(id: integer, email: string, name:string, user_role_id:integer)
user_role model attributes will be
UserRole(id: integer, role: string)
UserRole.create(role: 'Admin')
UserRole.create(role: 'Teacher')
UserRole.create(role: 'Author')
UserRole.create(role: 'Pupil')
then create your author( Let's assume the id for 'Author' role is 3)
user = User.create(name: 'abc', email: 'def#gmail.com', user_role_id: 3)
now, use this user object and go for devise login.
Now to list all the authors of our Application.
#user.rb
def self.all_authors
User.select('users.id, users.name, user_roles.role AS USER_ROLE')
.joins(:user_role).where(user_roles: {role: 'Author'})
end
Now to get all authors just give a call :
User.all_authors #this will list all the users of type 'author'