Rails custom routing for auto-login

Question

I want to set up auto-login by giving the user a link/key they can use like http://domain.com/4yT67rw. The last 7 digits are random and assigned to the user model.

Is it possible to do this with custom routing? I imagine it would have to be something like a regex to detect that it is a key and not a model name or error.

Would be great if I could do something like:

map.connect 'reg_ex_here', :controller => 'users', :action => 'key_redirect'

and then in the users controller:

def key_redirect
  user = User.find_by_key(key)
  redirect_to user_path(user)
end

Or probably some other easy way that I don't know about. ;)

Thanks

Answer 1

something like this should work for you:

map.key_redirect '/:key_id', :requirements => {:key_id => /regex_here/}, :controller => 'users', :actions => 'key_redirect'

As with all routes, you can then refer to key_redirect_path or key_redirect_url when constructing urls.