Methods
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Instance Public methods
attribute_method?(attribute)

Check if method is an attribute method or not.

# File activemodel/lib/active_model/validations.rb, line 156
def attribute_method?(attribute)
  method_defined?(attribute)
end
inherited(base)

Copy validators on inheritance.

# File activemodel/lib/active_model/validations.rb, line 161
def inherited(base)
  dup = _validators.dup
  base._validators = dup.each { |k, v| dup[k] = v.dup }
  super
end
validate(*args, &block)

Adds a validation method or block to the class. This is useful when overriding the validate instance method becomes too unwieldy and you’re looking for more descriptive declaration of your validations.

This can be done with a symbol pointing to a method:

class Comment
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  validate :must_be_friends

  def must_be_friends
    errors.add(:base, "Must be friends to leave a comment") unless commenter.friend_of?(commentee)
  end
end

With a block which is passed with the current record to be validated:

class Comment
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  validate do |comment|
    comment.must_be_friends
  end

  def must_be_friends
    errors.add(:base, "Must be friends to leave a comment") unless commenter.friend_of?(commentee)
  end
end

Or with a block where self points to the current record to be validated:

class Comment
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  validate do
    errors.add(:base, "Must be friends to leave a comment") unless commenter.friend_of?(commentee)
  end
end
# File activemodel/lib/active_model/validations.rb, line 131
def validate(*args, &block)
  options = args.extract_options!
  if options.key?(:on)
    options = options.dup
    options[:if] = Array.wrap(options[:if])
    options[:if].unshift("validation_context == :#{options[:on]}")
  end
  args << options
  set_callback(:validate, *args, &block)
end
validates(*attributes)

This method is a shortcut to all default validators and any custom validator classes ending in ‘Validator’. Note that Rails default validators can be overridden inside specific classes by creating custom validator classes in their place such as PresenceValidator.

Examples of using the default rails validators:

validates :terms, :acceptance => true
validates :password, :confirmation => true
validates :username, :exclusion => { :in => %w(admin superuser) }
validates :email, :format => { :with => %r\A([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)+[a-z]{2,})\Z/, :on => :create }
validates :age, :inclusion => { :in => 0..9 }
validates :first_name, :length => { :maximum => 30 }
validates :age, :numericality => true
validates :username, :presence => true
validates :username, :uniqueness => true

The power of the validates method comes when using custom validators and default validators in one call for a given attribute e.g.

class EmailValidator < ActiveModel::EachValidator
  def validate_each(record, attribute, value)
    record.errors.add attribute, (options[:message] || "is not an email") unless
      value =~ %r\A([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)+[a-z]{2,})\z/
  end
end

class Person
  include ActiveModel::Validations
  attr_accessor :name, :email

  validates :name, :presence => true, :uniqueness => true, :length => { :maximum => 100 }
  validates :email, :presence => true, :email => true
end

Validator classes may also exist within the class being validated allowing custom modules of validators to be included as needed e.g.

class Film
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  class TitleValidator < ActiveModel::EachValidator
    def validate_each(record, attribute, value)
      record.errors.add attribute, "must start with 'the'" unless value =~ %r\Athe/
    end
  end

  validates :name, :title => true
end

Additionally validator classes may be in another namespace and still used within any class.

validates :name, :'film/title' => true

The validators hash can also handle regular expressions, ranges, arrays and strings in shortcut form, e.g.

validates :email, :format => %r@/
validates :gender, :inclusion => %w(male female)
validates :password, :length => 6..20

When using shortcut form, ranges and arrays are passed to your validator’s initializer as +options+ while other types including regular expressions and strings are passed as +options+

Finally, the options :if, :unless, :on, :allow_blank, :allow_nil and :strict can be given to one specific validator, as a hash:

validates :password, :presence => { :if => :password_required? }, :confirmation => true

Or to all at the same time:

validates :password, :presence => true, :confirmation => true, :if => :password_required?
# File activemodel/lib/active_model/validations/validates.rb, line 81
def validates(*attributes)
  defaults = attributes.extract_options!
  validations = defaults.slice!(*_validates_default_keys)

  raise ArgumentError, "You need to supply at least one attribute" if attributes.empty?
  raise ArgumentError, "You need to supply at least one validation" if validations.empty?

  defaults.merge!(:attributes => attributes)

  validations.each do |key, options|
    key = "#{key.to_s.camelize}Validator"

    begin
      validator = key.include?('::') ? key.constantize : const_get(key)
    rescue NameError
      raise ArgumentError, "Unknown validator: '#{key}'"
    end

    validates_with(validator, defaults.merge(_parse_validates_options(options)))
  end
end
validates!(*attributes)

This method is used to define validation that cannot be corrected by end user and is considered exceptional. So each validator defined with bang or :strict option set to true will always raise ActiveModel::StrictValidationFailed instead of adding error when validation fails. See validates for more information about validation itself.

# File activemodel/lib/active_model/validations/validates.rb, line 109
def validates!(*attributes)
  options = attributes.extract_options!
  options[:strict] = true
  validates(*(attributes << options))
end
validates_each(*attr_names, &block)

Validates each attribute against a block.

class Person
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  attr_accessor :first_name, :last_name

  validates_each :first_name, :last_name do |record, attr, value|
    record.errors.add attr, 'starts with z.' if value.to_s[0] == zz
  end
end

Options:

  • :on - Specifies the context where this validation is active (e.g. :on => :create or :on => :custom_validation_context)

  • :allow_nil - Skip validation if attribute is nil.

  • :allow_blank - Skip validation if attribute is blank.

  • :if - Specifies a method, proc or string to call to determine if the validation should occur (e.g. :if => :allow_validation, or :if => Proc.new { |user| user.signup_step > 2 }). The method, proc or string should return or evaluate to a true or false value.

  • :unless - Specifies a method, proc or string to call to determine if the validation should not occur (e.g. :unless => :skip_validation, or :unless => Proc.new { |user| user.signup_step <= 2 }). The method, proc or string should return or evaluate to a true or false value.

# File activemodel/lib/active_model/validations.rb, line 86
def validates_each(*attr_names, &block)
  options = attr_names.extract_options!.symbolize_keys
  validates_with BlockValidator, options.merge(:attributes => attr_names.flatten), &block
end
validates_with(*args, &block)

If you pass any additional configuration options, they will be passed to the class and available as options:

class Person
  include ActiveModel::Validations
  validates_with MyValidator, :my_custom_key => "my custom value"
end

class MyValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
  def validate(record)
    options[:my_custom_key] # => "my custom value"
  end
end
# File activemodel/lib/active_model/validations/with.rb, line 79
def validates_with(*args, &block)
  options = args.extract_options!
  args.each do |klass|
    validator = klass.new(options, &block)
    validator.setup(self) if validator.respond_to?(:setup)

    if validator.respond_to?(:attributes) && !validator.attributes.empty?
      validator.attributes.each do |attribute|
        _validators[attribute.to_sym] << validator
      end
    else
      _validators[nil] << validator
    end

    validate(validator, options)
  end
end
validators()

List all validators that are being used to validate the model using validates_with method.

# File activemodel/lib/active_model/validations.rb, line 144
def validators
  _validators.values.flatten.uniq
end
validators_on(*attributes)

List all validators that being used to validate a specific attribute.

# File activemodel/lib/active_model/validations.rb, line 149
def validators_on(*attributes)
  attributes.map do |attribute|
    _validators[attribute.to_sym]
  end.flatten
end
Instance Protected methods
_validates_default_keys()

When creating custom validators, it might be useful to be able to specify additional default keys. This can be done by overwriting this method.

# File activemodel/lib/active_model/validations/validates.rb, line 119
def _validates_default_keys
  [:if, :unless, :on, :allow_blank, :allow_nil , :strict]
end