How to skip Devise authentication when using an API key?

Question

I\'m using Devise on my application and would like to create a global API key that can access JSON data of anyone\'s account without having to log-in.

For example, s

Answer 1

You can do this with your before_filter in your Controller.

Currently, you probably have something like:

class SomeController < ApplicationController
  before_filter :authenticate_user!
end

Instead of calling this, you can define a different method (ideally in ApplicationController)

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  before_filter :authenticate_or_token

  private
  def authenticate_or_token
    if params[:api_key] == 1234
      @current_user = User.new(:admin => true, :any => "other", :required => "fields")
      return current_user
    end
    authenticate_user!
  end

I would recommend using a more robust method of authentication such as OAuth, but this should work for a simple 1-key based authentication.