custom instance variable name in cancan's load_and_authorize_resource?

Question

users_controller.rb

class UsersController < ApplicationController  
  def index
    @objects = User.filter(params: params)
  end
end  

Q.1 > If 'load_and_authorize_resource' is called then what instance variable it will load ?
Q.2 > If it loads @user or @users then how to make it load on @object ?

I think I'm lacking sufficient knowledge understanding cancan (i'm a rails newbie) and using it since last 4 days, hoping this question makes sense.

Answer 1

A resource is not loaded if the instance variable is already set. This makes it easy to override the behavior through a before_filter on certain actions - from cancan https://github.com/ryanb/cancan/blob/master/lib/cancan/controller_additions.rb line 34 and 35, so you can do like this in your controller --

before_filter :set_instance_variable  
load_and_authorize_resource  
private  
  def set_instance_variable
    @object = "blah blah blah"  
  end  

load_and_authorize_resource should be called after setting instance variable i.e. after 'before_filter :set_instance_variable'