Rails 3 - Filter chain halted as :authentication rendered or redirected

Question

I am still getting the "error" message in the title and don't know, how to solve it. In the ApplicationController,

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
   protect_from_forgery
   before_filter :mailer_set_url_options
   helper_method :current_user_session, :current_user

   def mailer_set_url_options
     ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options[:host] = request.host_with_port
   end

   private
      def current_user_session
        logger.debug "ApplicationController::current_user_session"
        return @current_user_session if defined?(@current_user_session)
        @current_user_session = UserSession.find
      end

      def current_user
        logger.debug "ApplicationController::current_user"
        return @current_user if defined?(@current_user)
        @current_user = current_user_session && current_user_session.user
      end

      def authentication
        logger.debug "ApplicationController::authentication"
        unless current_user
          store_location
          flash[:warning] = "You must be logged out to access this page"
          redirect_to root_url
          return false
        end
      end

      def store_location
        session[:return_to] = request.url
      end
end

in the routes.rb

  #match 'set_activity_account/:id/:value' => 'users#account_activity', :as => :set_activity_account -- this doesn't work as well..
  resources :users do
    member do
      get :action_a, :action_b
    end
    collection do
      get 'account_activity'
    end
  end

and the UsersController

class UsersController < ApplicationController
  before_filter :authentication, only: [:index, :edit, :update, :destroy, :action_a, :action_b]
  #skip_before_filter :authentication, :only => [:account_activity] didn't help as well

  def account_activity
    unless current_user.nil?
      puts 'A'
      if params[:user_id] && params[:status]
        puts 'B'
        User.find(params[:user_id]).update_attributes(:active => params[:status])
        flash[:notice] = 'Activity was successfully changed.'
      end
    end
    redirect_to :back
  end
...

Always when is updated the active attribute, I will get the message Redirected localhost:3000/ Filter chain halted as :authentication rendered or redirected

EDIT: Added output from log file:

Started GET "/users/account_activity?user_id=31&status=0" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-09-28 00:40:10 +0200
Processing by UsersController#account_activity as HTML
  Parameters: {"user_id"=>"31", "status"=>"0"}
ApplicationController::current_user
ApplicationController::current_user_session
  User Load (0.7ms)  SELECT "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."persistence_token" = '...' LIMIT 1
   (0.1ms)  BEGIN
   (0.7ms)  UPDATE "users" SET "last_request_at" = '2012-09-27 22:40:10.258152', "perishable_token" = '...', "updated_at" = '2012-09-27 22:40:10.259093' WHERE "users"."id" = 31
   (0.7ms)  COMMIT
ApplicationController::current_user_session
  User Load (0.4ms)  SELECT "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."id" = $1 LIMIT 1  [["id", "31"]]
   (0.1ms)  BEGIN
  User Exists (0.6ms)  SELECT 1 FROM "users" WHERE ("users"."email" = '[email protected]' AND "users"."id" != 31) LIMIT 1
   (0.5ms)  UPDATE "users" SET "active" = 0, "perishable_token" = '...', "updated_at" = '2012-09-27 22:40:10.267227' WHERE "users"."id" = 31
   (0.7ms)  COMMIT
Redirected to http://localhost:3000/users/31/edit
Completed 302 Found in 19ms (ActiveRecord: 4.5ms)


Started GET "/users/31/edit" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-09-28 00:40:10 +0200
Processing by UsersController#edit as HTML
  Parameters: {"id"=>"31"}
ApplicationController::authentication
ApplicationController::current_user
ApplicationController::current_user_session
  User Load (0.7ms)  SELECT "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."persistence_token" = '...' LIMIT 1
  User Load (0.6ms)  SELECT "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."id" = 31 LIMIT 1
Redirected to http://localhost:3000/
Filter chain halted as :authentication rendered or redirected
Completed 302 Found in 5ms (ActiveRecord: 1.3ms)

How can I fix this problem? I've tried to search on google here on SO, but unfortunately still don't know, how to fix it..

Answer 1

the filter chain halts when you are redirecting somewhere from before_filter. if everything working correct than you can ignore this message

Answer 2

I got that error just with one of my users.

It turned out that the user had a field (were we recently added a lenght validation) with more text than the allowed. As the validation was new and the user was already there, that error kept showing.

I found it when trying to update its attributes using "!" to make the errors explicit

> User.last.update_attributes!(:email => "[email protected]") 

User Load (0.3ms) SELECT users.* FROM users ORDER BY users.id DESC LIMIT 1 (0.1ms) BEGIN User Exists (0.2ms) SELECT 1 AS one FROM users WHERE (users.email = '[email protected]' AND users.id != 2020) LIMIT 1 (0.1ms) ROLLBACK ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid: Validation failed: Summary is too long (maximum is 650 characters)

So changing the content of that field "Summary" solved it.