rails devise 401 unauthorized for a specific page

Question

I'm having trouble discerning why my app is returning a 401 Unauthorized. Other actions in my Institutions controller are working just fine while not signed in. However, this and another page are returning 401. If logged in, these pages work perfectly fine, but they shouldn't require being logged in. I have even gone so far as to empty the view and the action, but still the page is returning a 401. When debugging through fiddler, I simply receive a 302 Redirect.

I've tried researching elsewhere and have tried the solutions from Warden authentication recalls 401 Unauthorized without success.

Console

Started GET "/institutions/3" for 127.0.0.1 at 2013-04-25 14:38:15 -0400
    Processing by InstitutionsController#show as HTML
      Parameters: {"id"=>"3"}
      ←[1m←[36mInstitution Load (0.0ms)←[0m  ←[1mSELECT `institutions`.* FROM `institutions` WHERE `institutions`.`id` = 3 LIMIT 1←[0m

Load data...
Load assets...

Then I submit the form, method is set as GET

Started GET "/visit/schedule/preview?utf8=%E2%9C%93&selected_ids=4693" for 127.0.0.1 at 2013
-04-25 14:28:53 -0400
Processing by InstitutionsController#previewselectedvisits as HTML
  Parameters: {"utf8"=>"√", "selected_ids"=>"4693"}
Completed 401 Unauthorized in 0ms

Started GET "/users/sign_in" for 127.0.0.1 at 2013-04-25 14:28:53 -0400
Processing by Devise::SessionsController#new as HTML
  Rendered devise/sessions/new.html.erb within layouts/application (15.6ms)
  Rendered auth/_login.html.erb (0.0ms)
  Rendered auth/_loginmodal.html.erb (0.0ms)
  Rendered shared/_navbarout.html.erb (0.0ms)
  Rendered shared/_navbar.html.erb (0.0ms)
  ←[1m←[36mInstitution Load (0.0ms)←[0m  ←[1mSELECT name FROM `institutions` ←[0m
  Rendered search/_searchbar.html.erb (0.0ms)
  Rendered search/_searchresults.html.erb (0.0ms)
  Rendered shared/_footer.html.erb (0.0ms)
Completed 200 OK in 140ms (Views: 46.8ms | ActiveRecord: 15.6ms)

Load assets...

Relevant Routes

devise_for :users
match 'visit/schedule/preview' => 'institutions#previewselectedvisits', :as => :preview_visits, :via => :get
match "institutions/:id" => "institutions#show", :as => :show_institution

rake routes

    new_user_session GET    /users/sign_in(.:format)                             devise/sessions#new
              user_session POST   /users/sign_in(.:format)                             devise/sessions#create
      destroy_user_session DELETE /users/sign_out(.:format)                            devise/sessions#destroy
             user_password POST   /users/password(.:format)                            devise/passwords#create
         new_user_password GET    /users/password/new(.:format)                        devise/passwords#new
        edit_user_password GET    /users/password/edit(.:format)                       devise/passwords#edit
                           PUT    /users/password(.:format)                            devise/passwords#update
  cancel_user_registration GET    /users/cancel(.:format)                              devise_invitable/registrations#cancel
         user_registration POST   /users(.:format)                                     devise_invitable/registrations#create
     new_user_registration GET    /users/sign_up(.:format)                             devise_invitable/registrations#new
    edit_user_registration GET    /users/edit(.:format)                                devise_invitable/registrations#edit
                           PUT    /users(.:format)                                     devise_invitable/registrations#update
                           DELETE /users(.:format)                                     devise_invitable/registrations#destroy
         user_confirmation POST   /users/confirmation(.:format)                        devise/confirmations#create
     new_user_confirmation GET    /users/confirmation/new(.:format)                    devise/confirmations#new
                           GET    /users/confirmation(.:format)                        devise/confirmations#show
               user_unlock POST   /users/unlock(.:format)                              devise/unlocks#create
           new_user_unlock GET    /users/unlock/new(.:format)                          devise/unlocks#new
                           GET    /users/unlock(.:format)                              devise/unlocks#show
    accept_user_invitation GET    /users/invitation/accept(.:format)                   devise/invitations#edit
    remove_user_invitation GET    /users/invitation/remove(.:format)                   devise/invitations#destroy
           user_invitation POST   /users/invitation(.:format)                          devise/invitations#create
       new_user_invitation GET    /users/invitation/new(.:format)                      devise/invitations#new
                           PUT    /users/invitation(.:format)                          devise/invitations#update
            preview_visits GET    /visit/schedule/preview(.:format)                    institutions#previewselectedvisits
          show_institution        /institutions/:id(.:format)                          institutions#show
          vote_institution        /institutions/:id/vote/:visittype_id(.:format)       institutions#vote
                                  /institutions/:id/:offset(.:format)                  institutions#show
              institutions        /institutions(.:format)                              institutions#index
           schedule_visits        /schedule(.:format)                                  institutions#index
              auth_failure        /auth/failure(.:format)                              services#failure
                                  /auth/:service/:callback(.:format)                   services#create
                  services GET    /services(.:format)                                  services#index
                           POST   /services(.:format)                                  services#create
                   service DELETE /services/:id(.:format)                              services#destroy
                login_user        /users/login(.:format)                               users#login
             myvisits_user        /users/myvisits(.:format)                            users#myvisits
       email_myvisits_user        /users/myvisits/email(.:format)                      users#emailmyvisits
    remove_visit_from_user        /users/removevisit/:id/:user_id(.:format)            users#rmvisit
            addvisits_user        /users/addvisits(.:format)                           users#addvisits
          changevisit_user        /users/visits/:user_id/:visit_id/:is_going(.:format) users#toggle_user_going_on_visit
        add_family_to_user        /users/invite(.:format)                              users#addfamilymember
add_family_default_to_user        /users/profile/addfamilymemberdefault(.:format)      users#addfamilymember_default
   remove_family_from_user        /users/profile/removefamilymember(.:format)          users#rmfamilymember
       update_profile_user        /users/profile/update(.:format)                      users#update
 update_profile_other_user        /users/profile/update/:id(.:format)                  users#update
         edit_profile_user        /users/profile/edit(.:format)                        users#edit
         show_profile_user        /users/profile(.:format)                             users#show
                     users        /users(.:format)                                     users#show
                  families GET    /families(.:format)                                  families#index
                           POST   /families(.:format)                                  families#create
                new_family GET    /families/new(.:format)                              families#new
               edit_family GET    /families/:id/edit(.:format)                         families#edit
                    family GET    /families/:id(.:format)                              families#show
                           PUT    /families/:id(.:format)                              families#update
                           DELETE /families/:id(.:format)                              families#destroy
                    visits        /visits(.:format)                                    visits#index
                   company        /company(.:format)                                   company#aboutus
                       edu        /edu(.:format)                                       edu#index
                      root        /                                                    institutions#index

Gemfile

source 'https://rubygems.org'
gem 'rails', '3.2.12'
gem 'mysql2'
gem 'execjs'
group :assets do
  gem 'sass-rails',   '~> 3.2.3'
  gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 3.2.1'
  gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.0.3'
end

gem 'jquery-rails'
gem 'simple_form'

gem 'devise'
gem 'devise_invitable'
gem 'omniauth'
gem "omniauth-google-oauth2"
gem 'omniauth-linkedin-oauth2'
gem 'omniauth-facebook'

#in-place editing
gem 'best_in_place'

#email template convert to inline
gem 'roadie'

#amazon web services and images
gem 'paperclip'
gem 'aws-sdk'

Answer 1

check the code of your InstitutionsController and ApplicationController -- look for statements with current_user or before_filter in them

 class InstitutionsController < ApplicationController
    before_filter :login_required, :only => [:method1,:method2]
    ...
 end

could be that the method you are trying to call is listed as requiring authentication, but you are not logged in.

Can you also post an excerpt of your InstitutionsController with the preview method in it?

Another possible problem is that your route might be defined incorrectly:

  match 'visit/schedule/preview' => 'institutions#previewselectedvisits', :as => :preview_visits, :via => :get

does the InstitutionsController really have a method called previewselectedvisits ?