So I'm trying to get the user to return to the page they were looking at before they click "log in"

This is what I got in my user application controller:

def redirect_back_or_default(default)
  redirect_to(session[:return_to] || default)
  session[:return_to] = nil
end

And this is what I have in my sessions controller:

  def new
    @user_session = UserSession.new
    session[:return_to] = request.referer
    end
  end

    def create
    @user_session = UserSession.new(params[:user_session])
    if @user_session.save
        flash[:notice] = "Login successful!"
        redirect_back_or_default(home_path)
    else
        render :action => :new
    end
  end

This works fine most of the time but if a user logs in right after they register to the site, they will get redirected to a blank page. I imagine this is the "create" action because it was the last action before going to user sessions new.

So I tried this:

  def new
    @user_session = UserSession.new
    unless request.referer == join_path
    session[:return_to] = request.referer
    end
  end

And this tries to take me back to the login page after I log in.

What I'd really like to do is have the user see their profile when they log in for the very first time.

This wouldn't give me a user id and raised a routing error

  def create
    @user_session = UserSession.new(params[:user_session])
    if @user_session.save
        flash[:notice] = "Login successful!"
        redirect_back_or_default(user_path(current_user))
    else
        render :action => :new
    end
  end

Anybody gone through these redirecting acrobatics before? I can't seem to get it to work. I'm using authlogic if that helps.