ryanb / Trusted Params

= Trusted Params

Rails plugin which adds a convenient way to override attr_accessible protection.

If you are unfamiliar with the dangers of mass assignment please check these links

• http://railspikes.com/2008/9/22/is-your-rails-application-safe-from-mass-assignment
• http://railscasts.com/episodes/26-hackers-love-mass-assignment

== Install

You can install this as a plugin into your Rails app.

script/plugin install git://github.com/ryanb/trusted-params.git

== Features

This plugin does several things.

• Adds "trust" method on hash to bypass attribute protection
• Disables attr_protected because you should use attr_accessible.
• Requires attr_accessible be specified in every model
• Adds :all as option to attr_accessible to allow all attributes to be mass-assignable
• Raises an exception when assigning a protected attribute (instead of just a log message)

== Usage

When using this plugin, you must define attr_accessible in every model to allow mass assignment. You can use :all to mark all attributes as accessible.

class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base attr_accessible :all end

However, only do this if you want all attributes accessible to the public. Many times you will want to limit what the general public can set.

class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base attr_accessible :author_name, :email, :content end

Administrators should be able to bypass the protected attributes and set anything. This can be done with the "trust" method.

def create params[:comment].trust if admin? @comment = Comment.new(params[:comment]) # ... end

You can mark certain attributes as trusted for different roles

params[:comment].trust(:spam, :important) if moderator?

Then only those attributes will be allowed to bypass mass assignment.