Rails: how to apply authenticate_user filter only for mobile views

Question

Currently I got the following code piece in SomethingController :

class SomethingController < ApplicationController
  skip_filter :authenticate_user!, :only => [:new, :create, :edit, :update]

  #...
  #new
  #create
  #edit
  #update
end

Currently: We wanted unauthenticated users to be able to create or update Something objects.

The problem: Due to the different nature of our mobile phone authentication, we want to restrict unauthenticated mobile phone user not to be able to use this controller actions before they sign in/up. Can we add some condition to the filter, like:

  skip_filter :authenticate_user!, :only => [:new, :create, :edit, :update], :format=>:html
  skip_filter :authenticate_user!, :only => [], :format=>:mobile

If that is not possible, what is the best practice? Is this acceptable?

def new 
  if current_user.nil?
    #redirect to sign_in/up actions
  end
  #rest of the method
end

Answer 1

Skip the filter only for non mobile requests. Something like below.

    class SomethingController < ApplicationController
      skip_filter :authenticate_user!, :only => [:new, :create, :edit, :update], :unless => :mobile?

      #...
      #new
      #create
      #edit
      #update

     def mobile?
       #implementation here depends on how you do the mobile detection
     end
    end