Distinct Logins to a Rails App using Google Chrome Browser

If you are developing a Rails app that requires user login, then it can be really helpful to have more than one browser window open at a time, with a separate user logged into each.

For example, I typically have an Administrator user with special privileges as well as regular users. I want to test my app from both perspectives at the same time.

But because my app uses cookies to handle session information, I can't simply have two logins from the same browser. Until now I've dealt with this by having one user in Firefox and one in Safari, or Chrome.

Google Chrome allows you open Incognito Windows that store cookies, history, etc. in a sandbox that is destroyed when you close the window. This allows me to manage two active logins from Chrome.

Open up your first account in a normal window, then open an Incognito window and login as the second user... Simple!

Cookies, etc are shared between all Incognito windows and so you only get to have two active users, but even so this is really useful.

Firefox and other browsers have similar modes - Firefox has 'private browsing' - these may well give you similar functionality.