Registering new users with Devise in Rails 4 - ruby

Question

I am new to rails and working on a rails application.
I have installed the Devise gem and find it helpful in many areas, however I cannot create a new user unless I do it on the Rails Console. I find this especially frustrating. Does anyone have any suggestions or solutions?
When I sign up as an employee I get the following error "CanCan::AccessDenied in JobsController#index"
Also please note that when I verified my user model in devise and I have already included "include Devise::Models::DatabaseAuthenticatable"
My jobs_controller.rb file
def index
#users = User.all
#user = current_user
#jobs = Job.all
#jobs = Job.paginate(:page => params[:page], :per_page => 3)
end
# GET /jobs/1
# GET /jobs/1.json
def show
end
# GET /jobs/new
def new
#job = Job.new(:date => Time.now, :date_of_loss => Time.now, :sign_date => Time.now, :time_called_in => Time.now)
end
# GET /jobs/1/edit
def edit
end
# POST /jobs
# POST /jobs.json
def create
#job = Job.new(job_params)
respond_to do |format|
if #job.save
format.html { redirect_to #job, notice: 'Job was successfully created.' }
format.json { render action: 'show', status: :created, location: #job }
else
format.html { render action: 'new' }
format.json { render json: #job.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
# PATCH/PUT /jobs/1
# PATCH/PUT /jobs/1.json
def update
respond_to do |format|
if #job.update(job_params)
format.html { redirect_to #job, notice: 'Job was successfully updated.' }
format.json { head :no_content }
else
format.html { render action: 'edit' }
format.json { render json: #job.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
# DELETE /jobs/1
# DELETE /jobs/1.json
def destroy
#job.destroy
respond_to do |format|
format.html { redirect_to jobs_url }
format.json { head :no_content }
end
end
private
# Use callbacks to share common setup or constraints between actions.
def set_job
#job = Job.find(params[:id])
end
# Never trust parameters from the scary internet, only allow the white list through.
def job_params
params.require(:job).permit(:date, :time_called_in, :date_of_loss, :contact, :job_address, :city, :postal_code, :site_phone, :work_phone, :cell_phone, :email, :referred_by, :insurance_company, :policy_number, :claim_number, :broker, :insurance_address, :insurance_city, :insurance_province, :insurance_postal_code, :insurance_phone, :insurance_contact, :insurance_email, :customer_name, :customer_address, :authorized, :signed_by_name, :sign_date, :signature, :contact_first_name, :contact_last_name)
end
end
My ability model looks like this
class Ability
include CanCan::Ability
def initialize(user)
user ||= User.new # guest user (not logged in)
if user.role == "admin"
can :manage, :all
elsif user.role == "manager"
can [:read, :update, :create], [Job, Equipment]
#can [:read, :update, :create], [Equipment]
elsif user.role == "employee"
can [:read, :update, :create], [Equipment, Job]
cannot [:create], [Job]
#can [:read, :update], [Equipment]
end
end

Answer 1

If you are getting this error: CanCan::AccessDenied in JobsController#index it's because your user is not authorized to access the JobsController#index method and has nothing to do with creating users.
Can you explain what you mean when you say you "Sign up as an employee"? Do you have a roles table or a boolean on the users table to indicate that a user is an employee?
Please post your Ability.rb class (possibly in app/models/ability.rb) as that's where the access controls for cancan are defined.
Try changing this:
user ||= User.new # guest user (not logged in)
to this:
user ||= User.new # guest user (not logged in)
puts "user.role = #{user.role}"
and then check your logs to see what the value of user.role is. I'm wondering if your user does not have the role that you think it does.