How to re-configure an existing devise module in ROR app to switch from database to a REST API for authentication

Question

I'm tasked with finding a solution to re-factor an existing rails application to replace a database based authentication (see below) with a new implementation that uses a back-end via REST API call for authentication. Like always the proposed solution should minimize the changes. Wondering if anybody has done something similar in the past that can share.

devise :database_authenticatable, :registerable, :recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable, :omniauthable, omniauth_providers: [:saml]

Answer 1

You need to add an additional Devise authentication strategy. It is a bit of a process, but here is a great resource to get you there:

http://kyan.com/blog/2013/10/11/devise-authentication-strategies