Ruby on Rails return a message to the user after invalid login

Question

I am new at ruby on rails and I am trying to set up a simple log in for a part of the site. I have gotten the log in to work however when the user puts in a incorrect username, I want a message to say "Invalid log in. Try again." I can not figure this out any help would be greatly appreciated

HERE IS MY CODE IN MY CONTROLLER

class SimpleloginController < ApplicationController  
  def namein    

  end

  def transmain  
    @familyname_out = params[:family_name_in] #textbox name from the input file 
    name_out  = params[:family_name_in]   
    if found = Family.find_by_name(name_out)   
      redirect_to manin_manout_path, :notice => "Logged in successfully" 
    else  
      redirect_to simplelogin_namein_path, :notice => "Invalid login. Try again" 
    end    
  end 
end   

Answer 1

def transmain   
  unless Family.find_by_name(params[:family_name_in]).blank?
    redirect_to manin_manout_path, :notice => "Logged in successfully" 
  else  
    redirect_to simplelogin_namein_path, :notice => "Invalid login. Try again" 
  end    
end 

Answer 2

Are you rendering the notice messages in your view?

<% flash.each do |name, msg| %>
  <%= msg %>
<% end %>

Answer 3

I'm not sure about the behavior you're experiencing, but I think this line

if found = Family.find_by_name(name_out)

will return a RecordNotFound error if name_out doesn't exist in the db.

For a good look at authentication with rails check out Ryan Bates' Railcast Authentication from Scratch (Revised)