Retrieve user using credentials

[ghost]

I have been trying to figure this out for a number of hours and getting nowhere. I basically need to be able to retrieve a user instance based on email and password. I would normally do something like this with Restful Auth

user = User.authenticate('email', 'password')

...however I can't find the equivalent with devise. There may be a different user logged in at this stage who I want to leave logged in and just retrieve another user based on credentials but not affect the session.

[carlosantoniodasilva]

Yes, there is find_for_authentication.
http:/plataformatec/devise/blob/master/lib/devise/models/authenticatable.rb#L92
Please use the mailing list for questions and doubts.

[ghost]

Apologies, I didn't know there was a mailing list, do you have a link to it?

find_for_authentication just does a find based on attributes, I need a way to determine if the returned user's password is correct.

[carlosantoniodasilva]

Here is the mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/plataformatec-devise.
And yes, after find the resource through find_for_authentication, you can call resource.valid_for_authentication? to check if the user is active or not, and also resource.valid_password?('foo') to check if the password is valid for that given resource.
If it's needed you can wrap all this in you own :authenticate method, pretty similar to your example.

[ghost]

Many thanks, I will use the mailing list in future.

[geeksam]

Spent a good 20 minutes trying to find this information, including wading through the mass of indirection that is the Devise code and looking on the wiki. All I wanted was User.authenticate(identifier, password), not Every Design Pattern Ever Invented(tm). Frustrated now, trying very hard to refrain from using obscenities.

[alpha123]

I find Google very helpful for this sort of thing, particularly 'site:github.com inurl:/issues ', which in this case is quite helpful.