In a Rails 4 app with Railscasts' custom exception handler (#53), how do I force someone to a 404 within a controller action

Question

I've see How to redirect to a 404 in Rails? and it's multiple duplicates, but I'm trying to do the following with http://railscasts.com/episodes/53-handling-exceptions-revised also in place:

class ThingsController < ApplicationController
  def show
    @thing = Thing.find(params[:id])
    if @thing.user != current_user && @thing.is_private?
      # What do I put here to fake a 404?
    end
  end
end

I tried render text: "Not found", status: 404 but that does exactly that, just renders the text instead of handling it through the errors controller. I also tried render status: 404, but that still shows the record using the show template (albeit with a 404 status in the web inspector).

I'm sure this is dead simple, but I can't figure it out...

UPDATE: here is the framework trace when trying to access a private Thing that does not belong to the current_user as requested by @vee. Although, I had to set this back to get the trace:

# /config/environments/development.rb
config.consider_all_requests_local = true

Does that mess up the trace from the custom error handling though?

actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_controller/metal/implicit_render.rb:4:in `send_action'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:189:in `process_action'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:10:in `process_action'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:18:in `block in process_action'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:423:in `_run__1598237009408833250__process_action__callbacks'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:80:in `run_callbacks'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:17:in `process_action'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_controller/metal/rescue.rb:29:in `process_action'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:31:in `block in process_action'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:159:in `block in instrument'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:20:in `instrument'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:159:in `instrument'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:30:in `process_action'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_controller/metal/params_wrapper.rb:245:in `process_action'
activerecord (4.0.3) lib/active_record/railties/controller_runtime.rb:18:in `process_action'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:136:in `process'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/abstract_controller/rendering.rb:44:in `process'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:195:in `dispatch'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_controller/metal/rack_delegation.rb:13:in `dispatch'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:231:in `block in action'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:80:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:80:in `dispatch'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:48:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:71:in `block in call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:59:in `each'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:59:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:680:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/etag.rb:23:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/conditionalget.rb:25:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/head.rb:11:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/params_parser.rb:27:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/flash.rb:241:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/session/abstract/id.rb:225:in `context'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/session/abstract/id.rb:220:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/cookies.rb:486:in `call'
activerecord (4.0.3) lib/active_record/query_cache.rb:36:in `call'
activerecord (4.0.3) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:626:in `call'
activerecord (4.0.3) lib/active_record/migration.rb:369:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:29:in `block in call'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:373:in `_run__3933250874076526029__call__callbacks'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:80:in `run_callbacks'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:27:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/reloader.rb:64:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/remote_ip.rb:76:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/debug_exceptions.rb:17:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/show_exceptions.rb:30:in `call'
railties (4.0.3) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:38:in `call_app'
railties (4.0.3) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:20:in `block in call'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:67:in `block in tagged'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:25:in `tagged'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:67:in `tagged'
railties (4.0.3) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:20:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/request_id.rb:21:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/methodoverride.rb:21:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/runtime.rb:17:in `call'
activesupport (4.0.3) lib/active_support/cache/strategy/local_cache.rb:83:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/lock.rb:17:in `call'
actionpack (4.0.3) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/static.rb:64:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/sendfile.rb:112:in `call'
railties (4.0.3) lib/rails/engine.rb:511:in `call'
railties (4.0.3) lib/rails/application.rb:97:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/lock.rb:17:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/content_length.rb:14:in `call'
rack (1.5.2) lib/rack/handler/webrick.rb:60:in `service'
/Users/robs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p353/lib/ruby/2.0.0/webrick/httpserver.rb:138:in `service'
/Users/robs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p353/lib/ruby/2.0.0/webrick/httpserver.rb:94:in `run'
/Users/robs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p353/lib/ruby/2.0.0/webrick/server.rb:295:in `block in start_thread'

UPDATE 2: Answered in the OP comments.

You should find your answer here: [How to redirect to a 404 in Rails?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2385799/how-to-redirect-to-a-404-in-rails) — vee, Mar 14 '14 at 01:06
@vee, I tried to qualify this question stating that I am using the custom exception handler outlined in the Railscast. I don't see an answer in that post that works for my situation. Am I missing something? — robertwbradford, Mar 14 '14 at 01:08
If you have your routes setup, raising `ActionController::RoutingError` should be caught by your custom exception handler. Also I'm assuming you already have ` config.exceptions_app = self.routes` in your `config/application.rb`. — vee, Mar 14 '14 at 01:12
Thanks, @vee. Hmm, I tried `raise ActionController::RoutingError` but it ends up with a 500 error instead of a 404. I do have the config setup like you mentioned. In my routes.rb: `match ':status', to: 'errors#show', constraints: {status: /\d{3}/}, via: :all` — robertwbradford, Mar 14 '14 at 01:21
PS. the `raise ActionController::RoutingError` is using the custom 500 page, but I want to display a 404 instead. — robertwbradford, Mar 14 '14 at 01:27
Setting `consider_all_requests_local=true` is not going to mess up the routing!, but to see the error pages as you'd in `production` mode, this should be set to `false`. By the way, I just tried `raise ActionController::RoutingError.new('Not Found')` in a minimum rails app and I can see the custom 404 page. I followed the railscast exactly. I can suggest you to verify each modification suggested in the railscast one more time. — vee, Mar 14 '14 at 08:32
(I meant to ask if the trace would mess up, not the routing, and changed that question in my update above.) Ok, it's working now. The confusion came from not including `.new('Not Found')` when calling `raise ActionController::RoutingError`. This then caused a 500 error because the raise call was expecting some arguments. Gripes... Thanks, @vee, for the help. — robertwbradford, Mar 14 '14 at 19:39

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

0

What you have is an authorization issue

You could use this tutorial to fix: How to make this action throw a 404?:

class ThingsController < ApplicationController
  def show
    @thing = Thing.find(params[:id])
    raise ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound if (@thing.user != current_user) && (@thing.is_private?)
  end
end

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

1
1

answered Mar 14 '14 at 13:23

Richard Peck

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Thanks for the reply. ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound will also work, but my problem is explained in my comments on the OP. – robertwbradford Mar 14 '14 at 19:40

In a Rails 4 app with Railscasts' custom exception handler (#53), how do I force someone to a 404 within a controller action

1 Answers1