custom_functions.rb

module Sass::Script::Functions
  def user_color
    color_values = options[:custom][:user].color.
                     scan(/^#?(..?)(..?)(..?)$/).first.
                     map {|num| num.ljust(2, num).to_i(16)}
    Sass::Script::Color.new(color_values)
  end
end

routes.rb

map.stylesheet "/stylesheets/*path", :controller => "runtime_stylesheets", :action => "show"

runtime_stylesheets_controller.rb

# Note: This might not work at all -- I didn't run it or anything.
class RuntimeStylesheetsController < ApplicationController

  before_filter :lookup_user
  caches_action :show, :cache_path => :show, :ttl => 24.hours
  
  def show
    contents = File.read("#{Rails.root}/app/runtime_stylesheets/#{params[:path].join("/")}")
    options = {:custom => {:user => @user}}
    # If you're using compass & assuming you have compass-rails installed and activated in production.
    options.update(Compass.configuration.to_sass_engine_options)
    engine = Sass::Engine.new(contents, options)
    render :text => engine.render, :content_type => "text/css"
  end

  private

  def lookup_user
    @user = User.find_by_id(session[:user_id])
    render :text => "", :status => :not_found unless @user
  end

  def show_url
    "user_stylesheets/#{@user.id}/#{params[:path].join("/")}"
  end

end

stylesheet_usage.scss

body {
  background-color: user-color();
}

This should probably set the content type and handle the .css extension, etc.

Right, that last line of the show method could be:

render :text => Sass::Engine.new(contents, :custom => {:user => @user}).render, :content_type => "text/css"

and in your routes you'd want to include :format as part of the route to ensure it gets cached as css. I have a working version of this using caches_page.

Also note that, to use that custom user variable, your sass/scss files would need to access it via a custom function, something like:

  module Sass::Script::Functions
    def user_color
      sass_user_color = Sass::Script::String.new(options[:custom][:user].color, :string)
      assert_type sass_user_color, :String
      Sass::Script::String.new("##{sass_user_color.value}")
    end
  end

And then in your .scss:

  $user_color = user_color();

Just thought I'd add this here as the documentation on how to use custom data in a function lacks an example.

Thanks, I've updated the gist.

Thanks for improving on the user_color example. Returning a Sass::Script::Color instead of a Sass::Script::String is much better.