How To: Require admin to activate account before sign_in

Instead of using the confirmable module (to allow users to activate their own accounts), you may want to require an admin or moderator to activate new accounts.

Model changes

Create a migration as follows (in this case, I'm assuming the model is called User):

class AddAdminActivationToUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    add_column :users, :approved, :boolean
  end

  def self.down
    remove_column :users, :approved
  end
end

Then, override the following methods in your model (User.rb):

  def active_for_authentication? 
    super && approved? 
  end 
  
  def inactive_message 
    if !approved? 
      :not_approved 
    else 
      super # Use whatever other message 
    end 
  end

You will need to create an entry for :not_approved in the i18n file, located at config/locales/devise.##.yml:

  devise:
    failure:
      not_approved: 'Your account has not been approved by your administrator yet.'

Controllers and Views

You'll want to create a controller method that is admin-accessible only, that lists the unapproved users and provides a simple way to approve them.

(NOTE: still to come)

Email Notifications

(NOTE: still to come)