Podcast: Play in new window | Download In your Rails controllers you have filters you can place on incoming requests, outgoing responses, or wrap around your actions. Before filters are run on requests before the request gets to the controller’s action. It can return a response itself and completely bypass the action. The most common use of before filters is validating a user’s authentication... 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download Libraries for Authorization controls in Ruby on Rails are not nearly is prolific as they are with Authorization. The one I typically use is Cancan. The thing I like about Cancan is that it provides fairly granular model level controls. You have to do the checks—Rails won’t do them for you—but they are fairly straightforward. The other thing...