how to secure JSON output in rails while still giving access to normal webpage

Question

I am a bit confused on this. I am a bit new to rails API's. When a user visits www.example.com/products - he should still be able to view the normal webpage, but if he requests www.example.com/products.json, he should authenticate with a token, otherwise it should be denied access. in a normal rails app, we can either GET /pins or /pins.JSON by default like below:

But what if I want to authenticate only GET /pins.JSON or anything for that matter something.JSON ? is this possible somehow?

I did have a look at rails_api gem to some tutorials suggest creating rails app with rails_api, which creates the entire app as an API without normal webpage access.

Can anyone please suggest if its possible the way I want?

class PinsController < ApplicationController
      before_action :set_pin, only: [:show, :edit, :update, :destroy]
      before_action :authenticate_user! , except: [:index, :show]
      before_action :correct_user , only: [:edit, :udpate, :destroy]

      # GET /pins
      # GET /pins.json
      def index
        @pins = Pin.all.order("created_at DESC").paginate(:page => params[:page])
      end

      def show
      end

      def new
        @pin = current_user.pins.build
      end

      def edit
      end

      # POST /pins
      # POST /pins.json
      def create
        @pin = current_user.pins.build(pin_params)
        respond_to do |format|
          if @pin.save
            format.html { redirect_to @pin, notice: 'Pin was successfully created.' }
            format.json { render :show, status: :created, location: @pin }
          else
            format.html { render :new }
            format.json { render json: @pin.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
          end
        end
      end

      # PATCH/PUT /pins/1
      # PATCH/PUT /pins/1.json
      def update
        respond_to do |format|
          if @pin.update(pin_params)
            format.html { redirect_to @pin, notice: 'Pin was successfully updated.' }
            format.json { render :show, status: :ok, location: @pin }
          else
            format.html { render :edit }
            format.json { render json: @pin.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
          end
        end
      end

      # DELETE /pins/1
      # DELETE /pins/1.json
      def destroy
        @pin.destroy
        respond_to do |format|
          format.html { redirect_to pins_url, notice: 'Pin was successfully destroyed.' }
          format.json { head :no_content }
        end
      end

      private

        def set_pin
          @pin = Pin.find(params[:id])
        end

        def correct_user
        @pin = current_user.pins.find_by(id: params[:id])
        redirect_to pins_path, notice: "Not authorized to edit this pin" if @pin.nil?
        end


        # Never trust parameters from the scary internet, only allow the white list through.
        def pin_params
          params.require(:pin).permit(:description, :image)
        end
    end

djaszczurowski · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-29 13:22:50Z

1

the simplest way is to create a before_filter :authenticate_json and there enforce authentication in case json is requested

before_filter :authenticate_json

def authenticate_json
  if request.path_parameters[:format] == 'json'
    authenticate!
  end
end

answered Jan 29, 2016 at 13:22

djaszczurowski

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