Access Devise's current_user in Model

Question

How do I go about accessing Devises 'current_user' object inside of a model? I want to automatically append the current users id to a record when they create something. I know that I can manually set the user_id inside of the controller but I feel it would be easier/cleaner if it was handled by the model.

Answer 1

Essentially, this kind of logic doesn't belong in a Model, so you're best to pass current_user in through a function in the model or on creation. This answer sums it up.

I know, I know, that's not the answer you wanted. Unfortunately, it may be cleaner looking to you, but it adds overhead to your model that you really don't want.

Answer 2

Many popular gems need to access the current_user in the model such as paper_trail .

Their approach starts in the controller which captures the current_user .

class ApplicationController
  before_action :set_paper_trail_whodunnit
end

Which triggers:

def set_paper_trail_whodunnit
  if ::PaperTrail.request.enabled?
    ::PaperTrail.request.whodunnit = user_for_paper_trail
  end
end

and

def user_for_paper_trail
  return unless defined?(current_user)
  current_user.try(:id) || current_user
end

After the current_user.id is saved from the controller, and an auditing action is triggered such as create.

class Widget < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_paper_trail
end

Which eventually triggers the following event.

module PaperTrail
  module Events    
    class Create < Base
      def data
        data = {
          item: @record,
          event: @record.paper_trail_event || "create",
          whodunnit: PaperTrail.request.whodunnit
        },
        # .. more create code here 
    end
  end
end

In summary, an approach would be the following.

1. Save the current_user using a before_action in a controller
2. Store the current_user somewhere that can be accessed later in the model, in paper_trail 's case that is PaperTrail.request.whudunnit
3. Access your store inside the model