Get current actor inside Req request

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1

I’ve got an AshPhoenix app which needs to make authenticated HTTP requests to other APIs. I’m using Req.

These requests need an auth token, which I’m currently storing as a field on the User resource (the resource was originally created as part of the AshAuthentication setup).

The req “call site” is several layers deep in application code, and I’d like to avoid having to pass the auth/user info through all those layers if at all possible. So I’d like to be able to pull the current_user assign from the current session as close as possible to where I create (and perform) the Req.Request.

I’ve tried Ash.PlugHelpers.get_context as a :plug option in Req, but that returns nil because that’s the conn that Req is using, not the conn from the current user session.

There used to be (in Ash v2) a way of getting the current context (including actor from the process dict, but it doesn’t seem like that’s possible anymore? is there an alternative?

Sorry that’s all kindof abstract. I can fake up some minimal examples if you need me to.

2

Does the library you are using support putting a custom client? I was trying to do some response rewrite for the library InstructorLite that is using req, so I add something like

defmodule MyClient do
  def post(url, opts) do
    case Req.post(url, opts) do
      ... rewrite response
      ... you can get the pid here I guess

and set the custom client option adapter_context: [http_client: MyClient,

4

Yeah so you mean create a custom client that puts/gets stuff from the process dict like the old “Store Process in Context” stuff used to do?

I tracked down the docs page for that stuff, it was deleted in d55864713a32 but the commit message didn’t have a specific rationale - I presume it was just a general “using process dicts for state is gross and probably makes parallel testing hard” vibes.

Anyway, thanks for your idea - I’m honestly thinking that the best option is to rearchitect my code so that there’s fewer layers of indirection between the action (where I do know the actor) and the code that creates the Req.Request struct (where I need the auth token).

5

This is what I’d recommend.

6

Thanks. That’s what I did. As an added bonus testing is easier :slight_smile: