+++
date = "2012-04-14"
title = "Decorating Devise's current_user with Draper"
tags = ["Rails", "devise", "draper", "decorators"]
slug = "decorating-devise-s-current_user-with-draper"
+++
I've become a big fan of decorators, especially [Draper](https://github.com/jcasimir/draper).

Decorators allow you to move view related functionality for your models in to separate decorator classes. This keeps both your models and views clean and readable.

Anyway, if you use Devise you're provided with a `current_user` helper. However, this helper returns an instance of `User` - without your decorators. To enable decorators for your `current_user` by default, simple add this to `app/controllers/application_controller.rb`:

    def current_user
      UserDecorator.decorate(super) unless super.nil?
    end

Now, anywhere in your views where you call `current_user` you'll get a decorated version instead.

[Check here to see how to use Draper with Sorcery](http://ariejan.net/2012/11/02/decorating_sorcery_current_user_with_draper)