Migrating from restful_authentication to Devise with Rails 2.3.14

Question

I am in the process of using the rails upgrade plugin (https://github.com/rails/rails_upgrade) to bring the application from 2.3.14 to 3.2. The plugin identified "restful_authentication" as something that needed to be replaced. After some research I decided to try to migrate to Devise. I started looking at https://github.com/plataformatec/devise/wiki/How-To:-Migrate-from-restful_authentication-to-Devise, the issue I ran into is that these instructions are not meant for Rails 2.3.14. I can figure out how to make most of it work for 2.3.14, but the biggest block I have ran into is that I am not sure which versions of Devise, Devise-encryptable and other gems to use. Is there an simple way to check? Alliteratively am I making a mistake in trying to migrate to devise before I upgrade, should it be done the other way around?

Answer 1

Re: Is there a simple way to check? The short answer is no.

To know what Devise gems to use, just follow the directions in the devise wiki - you just need devise and devise-encryptable according to the wiki.

Re: Which one to do first: Whatever you decide to do, its a good idea to have a stable branch before attempting an upgrade. So either you a) upgrade Rails + get restful_auth working, or b) use Devise + upgrade Rails - just avoid trying to do both at the same time.

a) seems possible if you use https://github.com/Satish/restful-authentication . It's a fork of the original project, and neither are as active as Devise ( https://www.ruby-toolbox.com/categories/rails_authentication ). You may choose to upgrade your authentication system to devise anyway, which leads us to...

b) probably the road-more-travelled. You should be able to find plenty of (Rails 2.3) upgrade instructions for restful_authentication->Devise. Get your specs green, then attempt the Rails 3 upgrade.