title: Rails 3.1 - Accessing Parent Application Models from Mountable Engine
body: <p>I want to create a parent application that deals with the User Authentication. I then want to create various Mountable Engines (like a blog, contact directory, etc.) that can be added as needed. This means that I will need to access the User Authentication data (admin rights, etc.) from the Mountable Engine.</p>
  
  <p>I would like to know how (and if) this is possible, as it is evident that the Engine Models are accessible in the parent application it is integrated in to, but not the other way round.</p>
  
  <p>When this question was asked <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8855965/can-a-rails-3-engine-access-models-from-its-parent-application">here</a>, the answer given shows how to get all data, not things from helpers (like current_user).</p>
  
  <p>When it was asked <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7723303/rails-3-1-1-engines-with-mountable-engines-is-it-possible-to-access-parent-ap">here</a>, it seemed to cover namespacing, not the how to access functions and variables (unless I'm missing something).</p>
  
  <p>Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>