Rails validate field

Question

i have followin the http://ruby.railstutorial.org/

class User < ActiveRecord
  attr_accessible ..., :password, :password_confirmation
  has_secure_password

  validates :password, :presence => true,
                       :length => { :minimum => 6 }
  validates :password_confirmation, :presence => true

  ....
end

the problem is to create a new user this works fine, both passwords must be present and they need to match, when i update it requires me to provide the password

for example if another controller wants to change any field of User i must provide a password because otherwise i will not be able to update.

how can i formulate a contition to only require password/password_confirmation when creating the model or doing password update ?

Don't show the password and password confirmation fields on the edit form. — MurifoX
– MurifoX, Commented Nov 21, 2012 at 18:14
the problem i want change fields in another controller with no edit form, for example in the console user1 = User.first user1.field1 = "hi" user1.save this would leave a error password / password_confirmation cant be blank — fxe
– fxe, Commented Nov 21, 2012 at 18:17

hd1 · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-21 18:59:49Z

1

If you're using rails3, you can skip validations. From the docs:

The following methods skip validations, and will save the object to the database regardless of its validity. They should be used with caution.

decrement!

decrement_counter

increment!

increment_counter

toggle!

touch

update_all

update_attribute

update_column

update_counters

Note that save also has the ability to skip validations if passed :validate => false as argument. This technique should be used with caution.

Basically, use find to find the appropriate user, update whatever fields you want, user.save!(:validate=>false), and Bob's your uncle!

edited Nov 21, 2012 at 18:59

answered Nov 21, 2012 at 18:15

hd1

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4 Comments

Chris Peters Over a year ago

Why would you want to skip validations on user input? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having validations to begin with?

hd1 Over a year ago

@ChrisPeters you skip validations if, like the OP, you are updating the model and don't want to bother with the validations.

Chris Peters Over a year ago

"Not bothering with validations" is the lazy way out and can cause data integrity issues. What if the user decides to leave a required field blank? They'll either generate invalid data or cause a SQL error, depending on whether or not NOT NULL constraints are placed on the underlying column.

hd1 Over a year ago

@ChrisPeters you know what you should do then? Vote down the question, not my answer to it. OP specifically said how can i formulate a contition to only require password/password_confirmation when creating the model or doing password update? In other words, he wants validations disabled on create and update.

LpLrich · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-21 21:32:08Z

1

Rails supports conditional validations, e.g. in your User model

validates :password_confirmation, :presence => true, :if => :new_password

def new_password
  current_user and current_user.changing_password?
end

You would need to figure out in the new_password method how to tell whatever conditions are true when you want to validate.

See: http://railscasts.com/episodes/41-conditional-validations

edited Nov 21, 2012 at 21:32

LpLrich

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answered Nov 21, 2012 at 18:33

Tom Harrison

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