Problems setting up AuthLogic - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm trying to set up a simple login using AuthLogic into my User table. Every time I try, the login fails and I don't know why. I'm sure this is a simple error but I've been hitting a brick wall with it for a while.
#user_sessions_controller
def create
#user_session = UserSession.new(params[:user_session])
if #user_session.save
flash[:notice] = "Login successful!"
else
flash[:notice] = "We couldn't log you in. Please try again!"
redirect_to :controller => "index", :action => "index"
end
end
#_user_login.html.erb (this is the partial from my index page where Users log in)
<% form_tag user_session_path do %>
<p><label for="login">Login:</label>
<%= text_field_tag "login", nil, :class => "inputBox", :id => "login",
</p>
<p><label for="password">Password: </label>
<%= password_field_tag "password", nil, :class => "inputBox", :id => "password",
</p>
<p><%= submit_tag "submit", :class => "submit" %></p>
<% end %>
I had Faker generate some data for my user table but I cannot log in! Every time I try it just redirects to index. Where am I going wrong? Thanks everybody.
------UPDATE------
I implemented Jakub Hampl's suggestion with form_for just now - I'm getting a new error.
ActionView::TemplateError (called id for nil, which would mistakenly be 4 -
1: <% form_for #user_session do |f| %>
2: <% if flash[:notice] -%>
3: <p class="notice"><%= flash[:notice] %></p>
4: <% end -%>
app/views/index/_user_login.html.erb:1
app/views/layouts/index.html.erb:65
app/controllers/index_controller.rb:3:in `index'
Rendered rescues/_trace (86.0ms)
Rendered rescues/_request_and_response (1.0ms)
Rendering rescues/layout (internal_server_error)
I have not changed the controller at all. Thank you everyone who is responding to this topic - it's incredibly helpful to me. What can I do now to get past this hurdle?
------UPDATE #2------
Here is my application controller.
def current_user_session
return #current_user_session if defined?(#current_user_session)
#current_user_session = UserSession.find
end
def current_user
return #current_user if defined?(#current_user)
#current_user = current_user_session && current_user_session.user
end
def require_user
unless current_user
store_location
flash[:notice] = "You must be logged in to access this page"
redirect_to login_path
return false
end
end
def require_no_user
if current_user
store_location
flash[:notice] = "You must be logged out to access this page"
redirect_to root_url
return false
end
end
Which one of these should be changed to #user_session?

Answer 1

A good idea is to use form_for if you possibly can:
<% form_for #user_session do |f| %>
<p>
<%= f.label :username %>
<%= f.text_field :username, :class => :inputBox %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :password %>
<%= f.password_field :password, :class => :inputBox %>
</p>
<p><%= f.submit "submit", :class => :submit %></p>
<% end %>
Apart from that hard to say. Does your log file give any detail (aka errors)? Also try to add the errors on the table to you flash so that you can see what's going wrong.
Since it seems fro your last update that #user_session is not set, just go ahead and create one: <% form_for UserSession.new do |f| %>.

Answer 2

in your case, params[:user_session] is empty because it's not being set in your view. I think Jakub Hampl's suggestion to use form_for is the best way, but you can also stay with form_tag by setting input names to user_session[login] and user_session[password], OR you can change the line in your action to #user_session = UserSession.new(:login => params[:login], :password => params[:password])
.