Undefined method attr_accessible error for User

Question

I'm trying to create a login of sorts. I created a User scaffold and have this code in my user.rb

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name,  :password_digest, :password, :password_confirmation

has_secure_password
end

I keep getting this error

undefined method `attr_accessible' for #<Class:0x396bc28>

Extracted source (around line #2):
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5

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :name,  :password_digest, :password, :password_confirmation

  has_secure_password
end

Rails.root: C:/Sites/web

Solution

attr_accessible is not available for Rails version 4+. You would have to go with strong parameters.

With Strong Parameters, attribute whitelisting has been moved to controller level. Remove the attr_accessible call from your model.

Here is an example in Rails Guide of how to use Strong Parameters

In your case you can do something like this:

class UsersController < ApplicationController
  ## ...
  def create
    @user = User.new(user_params) ## Invoke user_params method
    if @user.save
      redirect_to @user, notice: 'User was successfully created.' 
    else
      render action: 'new'
    end       
  end
  ## ... 

  private
  ## Strong Parameters 
  def user_params
    params.require(:user).permit(:name, :password_digest, :password, :password_confirmation)
  end
end 

You can take a note of @Frederick comment below my answer,

you can still use attr_accessible but it has been extracted into the protected_attributes gem (although clearly strong parameters is the way forwards)

Comments

[Admin]

How do I use has_secure_password with strong params?

[Kirti Thorat]

Just permit the attributes :name, :password_digest, :password, :password_confirmation in the UsersController like shown in the example link I provided in answer.

[Frederick Cheung]

You can still use attr_accessible but it has been extracted into the protected_attributes gem (although clearly strong parameters is the way forwards)

[Kirti Thorat]

@FrederickCheung +1 That's a good point, added it to my answer.