Rails 3.2.13 / Devise 2.2.3: Method "authenticate_scope!" throws error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 0)

Question

I use Devise (2.2.3) and am trying to load the "edit" form for a user using this jQuery ajax call:

$.ajax({
  type: 'GET',
  url: '/users/edit',
  data: {
    id: id
  }
});

This will call this before_filter...

prepend_before_filter :authenticate_scope!, :only => [:edit, :update, :destroy]

...from the gem file...

devise/app/controllers/devise/registrations_controller.rb

(see: https://github.com/plataformatec/devise/blob/master/app/controllers/devise/registrations_controller.rb)

The method that's eventually called is:

# Authenticates the current scope and gets the current resource from the session.
def authenticate_scope!
  send(:"authenticate_#{resource_name}!"), :force => true)
  self.resource = send(:"current_#{resource_name}")
end

And the error I get is:

ArgumentError at /users/edit
============================

> wrong number of arguments (1 for 0)

(gem) devise-2.2.3/app/controllers/devise/registrations_controller.rb, line 116
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

``` ruby
  111       signed_in_root_path(resource)
  112     end
  113   
  114     # Authenticates the current scope and gets the current resource from the session.
  115     def authenticate_scope!
> 116       send(:"authenticate_#{resource_name}!", :force => true)
  117       self.resource = send(:"current_#{resource_name}")
  118     end
  119   end
```

But when I delete the ":force => true", then the error vanishes:

# Authenticates the current scope and gets the current resource from the session.
def authenticate_scope!
  send(:"authenticate_#{resource_name}!"))  # deleted: :force => true
  self.resource = send(:"current_#{resource_name}")
end

So I'm wondering what the ":force => true" means... Why do I get the error when I leave it in place? I suppose it's a bad idea to monkey-patch gem code like this. But what else can I do to avoid the error?

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Figured it out: the problem was I had overriden the method...

def authenticate_user!
  # do some stuff
  # of my own here

  # then hand over to Devise's method
  super
end

...in the ApplicationController. But it must look like this:

def authenticate_user!(options={})
  # do some stuff
  # of my own here

  # then hand over to Devise's method
  super(options)
end

Hope that helps somebody, some day, maybe...