Introduction to authentication

…In this chapter, we'll learn to restrict access to a portion of the application so…that only users who log in with…their valid username and password can gain access.…We call this process user authentication.…User authentication is not necessarily a beginner topic, but there…are couple of reasons I think it's worhtwhile to include.…First, password protected areas have become so common, that you're almost…guaranteed to need one in any web application that you build.…And if you need it, it's important to add it correctly.…Mistakes in this area can be particularly costly.…

It also helps to reitterate the point that…site development choices and site security go hand-in-hand.…You need to be mindful of security in every part of your code.…And last it will give us a chance to look at a few more features of Rails.…Here are some of the additional Rails concepts that we'll see throughout this…chapter, Encryption techniques, Non-database attributes, Cookies and…sessions, Controller method accessibility and Before actions.…