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ruby-on-railsrestful-authentication

What does #self.included(base) do in Ruby on Rails' Restful Authentication?

I thought we would do

helper_method :current_user, :logged_in?, :authorized?

to make these controller methods available for use as helper methods in views. But in Restful Authentication's lib/authenticated_system.rb, I see:

# Inclusion hook to make #current_user and #logged_in?
# available as ActionView helper methods.
def self.included(base)
  base.send :helper_method, :current_user, :logged_in?, :authorized? if base.respond_to? :helper_method
end

Why is it done this way instead of that single line? Also, I don't see included being called anywhere.

Solution

  • The self.included function is called when the module is included. It allows methods to be executed in the context of the base (where the module is included).

    More info: a ruby mixin tutorial.