Rails form_for password_field return type

Question

I have a simple signup form:

<h1>Signup as a new user</h1>

<%= form_for(@user) do |f| %>
  <p>
    <%= f.label :username %>
    <%= f.text_field :username %>
  </p>
  <p>
    <%= f.label :password %>
    <%= f.password_field :password %>
  </p>
  <p>
    <%= f.submit "Save" %>
  </p>
<% end %>

That redirects to the create method of the UsersController:

def create
  password  = params[:password].crypt("$1$}")
  @user = User.new(:username => params[:username], :password => password)
  @user.save
  flash[:message] = "User #{User.username} created!"
  redirect_to user_path(@user)
end

But this throws an error undefined method crypt' for nil:NilClass. Why would the password be Nil? I checked the HTML params and got this:

Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"aAcaURTLKfwmXULEUzLX36tZAKER/kMxKKOROOXgoU8=", "user"=>{"username"=>"Chris", "password"=>"[FILTERED]"}, "commit"=>"Save"}

Does "[FILTERED}" mean it isn't a string? How can I access it from params?

Answer 1

Its not nil, it just exists inside of :user, so try

params[:user][:password].crypt("$1$")

In fact all of your params work here is incorrect, all the fields are scoped by :user, this is one of the things that form_for does for you automatically.

So to get the username, you'd want to say params[:user][:username].