SchmidtHappens

Have you ever needed to set a custom layout for a Devise controller? It's actually easier than you might think.

Devise is quickly becoming my go-to solution when it comes to user authentication. One of the challenges that I had was to specify a custom layout for the registration controller. Here's how I did it.

First, The "Dont't Ever Do It Like This" Method

The first time I encountered this problem I made the mistake of re-creating the Devise controller in my application. In other words, I actually created an app/controllers/devise/registrations_controller.rb file. Then I - gasp - copy and pasted what was in the Devise Registrations file in the gem. I know, I too have my moments.

After slapping myself repeatedly for about an hour, I thought "HAZAA! I've got it!". I proceeded to sub-class the Devise Registrations controller in app/controllers/my_registrations_controller.rb. At least with this approach I wouldn't be screwed if I updated the Devise gem and the devs decided to change the way this controller worked.

After patting myself on the back and congratulating my brilliance I moved on to other parts of the site. Then came the itch. You know the feeling. It happens when you know you didn't do it the right way. Then came that little voice inside that says "you know this is probably something that is pretty common...they probably have a better solution baked right in". Annnnd of course, little voice was right.

This is Why We Read the Source

One afternoon when I couldn't shut up 'little voice' I sat down in front of my computer and started going through the Devise source code and wiki. Sure as shit, there it was. One suggestion was to add a config option to the application.rb file. My suggestion - which is admittedly more awesome - is to put it in an initializer file like config/initializers/devise_layouts_config.rb.

Then put something like the following inside of it and bam! Custom layout joygasm.

# Specify the layout file that should be used for each Devise controller
  AppName::Application.configure do
    config.to_prepare do
      Devise::SessionsController.layout       "layoutname"
      Devise::RegistrationsController.layout  "layoutname"
      Devise::ConfirmationsController.layout  "layoutname"
      Devise::UnlocksController.layout        "layoutname"
      Devise::PasswrodsController.layout      "layoutname"
    end
  end

And there you have it. Wasn't that simple?

Something missing? Need more explanation? Let me know in the c-c-c-comments!