Module | ActiveRecord::Validations::ClassMethods |
In: |
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb
|
Active Record classes can implement validations in several ways. The highest level, easiest to read, and recommended approach is to use the declarative validates_..._of class methods (and validates_associated) documented below. These are sufficient for most model validations.
Slightly lower level is validates_each. It provides some of the same options as the purely declarative validation methods, but like all the lower-level approaches it requires manually adding to the errors collection when the record is invalid.
At a yet lower level, a model can use the class methods validate, validate_on_create and validate_on_update to add validation methods or blocks. These are ActiveSupport::Callbacks and follow the same rules of inheritance and chaining.
The lowest level style is to define the instance methods validate, validate_on_create and validate_on_update as documented in ActiveRecord::Validations.
Calls to these methods add a validation method or block to the class. Again, this approach is recommended only when the higher-level methods documented below (validates_..._of and validates_associated) are insufficient to handle the required validation.
This can be done with a symbol pointing to a method:
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base validate :must_be_friends def must_be_friends errors.add_to_base("Must be friends to leave a comment") unless commenter.friend_of?(commentee) end end
Or with a block which is passed the current record to be validated:
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base validate do |comment| comment.must_be_friends end def must_be_friends errors.add_to_base("Must be friends to leave a comment") unless commenter.friend_of?(commentee) end end
This usage applies to validate_on_create and validate_on_update as well.
DEFAULT_VALIDATION_OPTIONS | = | { :on => :save, :allow_nil => false, :allow_blank => false, :message => nil |
ALL_RANGE_OPTIONS | = | [ :is, :within, :in, :minimum, :maximum ].freeze |
ALL_NUMERICALITY_CHECKS | = | { :greater_than => '>', :greater_than_or_equal_to => '>=', :equal_to => '==', :less_than => '<', :less_than_or_equal_to => '<=', :odd => 'odd?', :even => 'even?' }.freeze |
Creates an object just like Base.create but calls save! instead of save so an exception is raised if the record is invalid.
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 1053 1053: def create!(attributes = nil, &block) 1054: if attributes.is_a?(Array) 1055: attributes.collect { |attr| create!(attr, &block) } 1056: else 1057: object = new(attributes) 1058: yield(object) if block_given? 1059: object.save! 1060: object 1061: end 1062: end
Encapsulates the pattern of wanting to validate the acceptance of a terms of service check box (or similar agreement). Example:
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base validates_acceptance_of :terms_of_service validates_acceptance_of :eula, :message => "must be abided" end
If the database column does not exist, the terms_of_service attribute is entirely virtual. This check is performed only if terms_of_service is not nil and by default on save.
Configuration options:
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 537 537: def validates_acceptance_of(*attr_names) 538: configuration = { :on => :save, :allow_nil => true, :accept => "1" } 539: configuration.update(attr_names.extract_options!) 540: 541: db_cols = begin 542: column_names 543: rescue Exception # To ignore both statement and connection errors 544: [] 545: end 546: names = attr_names.reject { |name| db_cols.include?(name.to_s) } 547: attr_accessor(*names) 548: 549: validates_each(attr_names,configuration) do |record, attr_name, value| 550: unless value == configuration[:accept] 551: record.errors.add(attr_name, :accepted, :default => configuration[:message]) 552: end 553: end 554: end
Validates whether the associated object or objects are all valid themselves. Works with any kind of association.
class Book < ActiveRecord::Base has_many :pages belongs_to :library validates_associated :pages, :library end
Warning: If, after the above definition, you then wrote:
class Page < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :book validates_associated :book end
this would specify a circular dependency and cause infinite recursion.
NOTE: This validation will not fail if the association hasn‘t been assigned. If you want to ensure that the association is both present and guaranteed to be valid, you also need to use validates_presence_of.
Configuration options:
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 970 970: def validates_associated(*attr_names) 971: configuration = { :on => :save } 972: configuration.update(attr_names.extract_options!) 973: 974: validates_each(attr_names, configuration) do |record, attr_name, value| 975: unless (value.is_a?(Array) ? value : [value]).collect { |r| r.nil? || r.valid? }.all? 976: record.errors.add(attr_name, :invalid, :default => configuration[:message], :value => value) 977: end 978: end 979: end
Encapsulates the pattern of wanting to validate a password or email address field with a confirmation. Example:
Model: class Person < ActiveRecord::Base validates_confirmation_of :user_name, :password validates_confirmation_of :email_address, :message => "should match confirmation" end View: <%= password_field "person", "password" %> <%= password_field "person", "password_confirmation" %>
The added password_confirmation attribute is virtual; it exists only as an in-memory attribute for validating the password. To achieve this, the validation adds accessors to the model for the confirmation attribute. NOTE: This check is performed only if password_confirmation is not nil, and by default only on save. To require confirmation, make sure to add a presence check for the confirmation attribute:
validates_presence_of :password_confirmation, :if => :password_changed?
Configuration options:
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 501 501: def validates_confirmation_of(*attr_names) 502: configuration = { :on => :save } 503: configuration.update(attr_names.extract_options!) 504: 505: attr_accessor(*(attr_names.map { |n| "#{n}_confirmation" })) 506: 507: validates_each(attr_names, configuration) do |record, attr_name, value| 508: unless record.send("#{attr_name}_confirmation").nil? or value == record.send("#{attr_name}_confirmation") 509: record.errors.add(attr_name, :confirmation, :default => configuration[:message]) 510: end 511: end 512: end
Validates each attribute against a block.
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base validates_each :first_name, :last_name do |record, attr, value| record.errors.add attr, 'starts with z.' if value[0] == ?z end end
Options:
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 459 459: def validates_each(*attrs) 460: options = attrs.extract_options!.symbolize_keys 461: attrs = attrs.flatten 462: 463: # Declare the validation. 464: send(validation_method(options[:on] || :save), options) do |record| 465: attrs.each do |attr| 466: value = record.send(attr) 467: next if (value.nil? && options[:allow_nil]) || (value.blank? && options[:allow_blank]) 468: yield record, attr, value 469: end 470: end 471: end
Validates that the value of the specified attribute is not in a particular enumerable object.
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base validates_exclusion_of :username, :in => %w( admin superuser ), :message => "You don't belong here" validates_exclusion_of :age, :in => 30..60, :message => "This site is only for under 30 and over 60" validates_exclusion_of :format, :in => %w( mov avi ), :message => "extension {{value}} is not allowed" end
Configuration options:
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 924 924: def validates_exclusion_of(*attr_names) 925: configuration = { :on => :save } 926: configuration.update(attr_names.extract_options!) 927: 928: enum = configuration[:in] || configuration[:within] 929: 930: raise(ArgumentError, "An object with the method include? is required must be supplied as the :in option of the configuration hash") unless enum.respond_to?(:include?) 931: 932: validates_each(attr_names, configuration) do |record, attr_name, value| 933: if enum.include?(value) 934: record.errors.add(attr_name, :exclusion, :default => configuration[:message], :value => value) 935: end 936: end 937: end
Validates whether the value of the specified attribute is of the correct form by matching it against the regular expression provided.
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base validates_format_of :email, :with => /\A([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)+[a-z]{2,})\Z/i, :on => :create end
Note: use \A and \Z to match the start and end of the string, ^ and $ match the start/end of a line.
A regular expression must be provided or else an exception will be raised.
Configuration options:
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 858 858: def validates_format_of(*attr_names) 859: configuration = { :on => :save, :with => nil } 860: configuration.update(attr_names.extract_options!) 861: 862: raise(ArgumentError, "A regular expression must be supplied as the :with option of the configuration hash") unless configuration[:with].is_a?(Regexp) 863: 864: validates_each(attr_names, configuration) do |record, attr_name, value| 865: unless value.to_s =~ configuration[:with] 866: record.errors.add(attr_name, :invalid, :default => configuration[:message], :value => value) 867: end 868: end 869: end
Validates whether the value of the specified attribute is available in a particular enumerable object.
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base validates_inclusion_of :gender, :in => %w( m f ) validates_inclusion_of :age, :in => 0..99 validates_inclusion_of :format, :in => %w( jpg gif png ), :message => "extension {{value}} is not included in the list" end
Configuration options:
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 890 890: def validates_inclusion_of(*attr_names) 891: configuration = { :on => :save } 892: configuration.update(attr_names.extract_options!) 893: 894: enum = configuration[:in] || configuration[:within] 895: 896: raise(ArgumentError, "An object with the method include? is required must be supplied as the :in option of the configuration hash") unless enum.respond_to?(:include?) 897: 898: validates_each(attr_names, configuration) do |record, attr_name, value| 899: unless enum.include?(value) 900: record.errors.add(attr_name, :inclusion, :default => configuration[:message], :value => value) 901: end 902: end 903: end
Validates that the specified attribute matches the length restrictions supplied. Only one option can be used at a time:
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base validates_length_of :first_name, :maximum=>30 validates_length_of :last_name, :maximum=>30, :message=>"less than {{count}} if you don't mind" validates_length_of :fax, :in => 7..32, :allow_nil => true validates_length_of :phone, :in => 7..32, :allow_blank => true validates_length_of :user_name, :within => 6..20, :too_long => "pick a shorter name", :too_short => "pick a longer name" validates_length_of :fav_bra_size, :minimum => 1, :too_short => "please enter at least {{count}} character" validates_length_of :smurf_leader, :is => 4, :message => "papa is spelled with {{count}} characters... don't play me." validates_length_of :essay, :minimum => 100, :too_short => "Your essay must be at least {{count}} words."), :tokenizer => lambda {|str| str.scan(/\w+/) } end
Configuration options:
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 626 626: def validates_length_of(*attrs) 627: # Merge given options with defaults. 628: options = { 629: :tokenizer => lambda {|value| value.split(//)} 630: }.merge(DEFAULT_VALIDATION_OPTIONS) 631: options.update(attrs.extract_options!.symbolize_keys) 632: 633: # Ensure that one and only one range option is specified. 634: range_options = ALL_RANGE_OPTIONS & options.keys 635: case range_options.size 636: when 0 637: raise ArgumentError, 'Range unspecified. Specify the :within, :maximum, :minimum, or :is option.' 638: when 1 639: # Valid number of options; do nothing. 640: else 641: raise ArgumentError, 'Too many range options specified. Choose only one.' 642: end 643: 644: # Get range option and value. 645: option = range_options.first 646: option_value = options[range_options.first] 647: key = {:is => :wrong_length, :minimum => :too_short, :maximum => :too_long}[option] 648: custom_message = options[:message] || options[key] 649: 650: case option 651: when :within, :in 652: raise ArgumentError, ":#{option} must be a Range" unless option_value.is_a?(Range) 653: 654: validates_each(attrs, options) do |record, attr, value| 655: value = options[:tokenizer].call(value) if value.kind_of?(String) 656: if value.nil? or value.size < option_value.begin 657: record.errors.add(attr, :too_short, :default => custom_message || options[:too_short], :count => option_value.begin) 658: elsif value.size > option_value.end 659: record.errors.add(attr, :too_long, :default => custom_message || options[:too_long], :count => option_value.end) 660: end 661: end 662: when :is, :minimum, :maximum 663: raise ArgumentError, ":#{option} must be a nonnegative Integer" unless option_value.is_a?(Integer) and option_value >= 0 664: 665: # Declare different validations per option. 666: validity_checks = { :is => "==", :minimum => ">=", :maximum => "<=" } 667: 668: validates_each(attrs, options) do |record, attr, value| 669: value = options[:tokenizer].call(value) if value.kind_of?(String) 670: unless !value.nil? and value.size.method(validity_checks[option])[option_value] 671: record.errors.add(attr, key, :default => custom_message, :count => option_value) 672: end 673: end 674: end 675: end
Validates whether the value of the specified attribute is numeric by trying to convert it to a float with Kernel.Float (if only_integer is false) or applying it to the regular expression /\A[+\-]?\d+\Z/ (if only_integer is set to true).
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base validates_numericality_of :value, :on => :create end
Configuration options:
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 1007 1007: def validates_numericality_of(*attr_names) 1008: configuration = { :on => :save, :only_integer => false, :allow_nil => false } 1009: configuration.update(attr_names.extract_options!) 1010: 1011: 1012: numericality_options = ALL_NUMERICALITY_CHECKS.keys & configuration.keys 1013: 1014: (numericality_options - [ :odd, :even ]).each do |option| 1015: raise ArgumentError, ":#{option} must be a number" unless configuration[option].is_a?(Numeric) 1016: end 1017: 1018: validates_each(attr_names,configuration) do |record, attr_name, value| 1019: raw_value = record.send("#{attr_name}_before_type_cast") || value 1020: 1021: next if configuration[:allow_nil] and raw_value.nil? 1022: 1023: if configuration[:only_integer] 1024: unless raw_value.to_s =~ /\A[+-]?\d+\Z/ 1025: record.errors.add(attr_name, :not_a_number, :value => raw_value, :default => configuration[:message]) 1026: next 1027: end 1028: raw_value = raw_value.to_i 1029: else 1030: begin 1031: raw_value = Kernel.Float(raw_value) 1032: rescue ArgumentError, TypeError 1033: record.errors.add(attr_name, :not_a_number, :value => raw_value, :default => configuration[:message]) 1034: next 1035: end 1036: end 1037: 1038: numericality_options.each do |option| 1039: case option 1040: when :odd, :even 1041: unless raw_value.to_i.method(ALL_NUMERICALITY_CHECKS[option])[] 1042: record.errors.add(attr_name, option, :value => raw_value, :default => configuration[:message]) 1043: end 1044: else 1045: record.errors.add(attr_name, option, :default => configuration[:message], :value => raw_value, :count => configuration[option]) unless raw_value.method(ALL_NUMERICALITY_CHECKS[option])[configuration[option]] 1046: end 1047: end 1048: end 1049: end
Validates that the specified attributes are not blank (as defined by Object#blank?). Happens by default on save. Example:
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base validates_presence_of :first_name end
The first_name attribute must be in the object and it cannot be blank.
If you want to validate the presence of a boolean field (where the real values are true and false), you will want to use validates_inclusion_of :field_name, :in => [true, false].
This is due to the way Object#blank? handles boolean values: false.blank? # => true.
Configuration options:
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 580 580: def validates_presence_of(*attr_names) 581: configuration = { :on => :save } 582: configuration.update(attr_names.extract_options!) 583: 584: # can't use validates_each here, because it cannot cope with nonexistent attributes, 585: # while errors.add_on_empty can 586: send(validation_method(configuration[:on]), configuration) do |record| 587: record.errors.add_on_blank(attr_names, configuration[:message]) 588: end 589: end
Validates whether the value of the specified attributes are unique across the system. Useful for making sure that only one user can be named "davidhh".
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base validates_uniqueness_of :user_name, :scope => :account_id end
It can also validate whether the value of the specified attributes are unique based on multiple scope parameters. For example, making sure that a teacher can only be on the schedule once per semester for a particular class.
class TeacherSchedule < ActiveRecord::Base validates_uniqueness_of :teacher_id, :scope => [:semester_id, :class_id] end
When the record is created, a check is performed to make sure that no record exists in the database with the given value for the specified attribute (that maps to a column). When the record is updated, the same check is made but disregarding the record itself.
Configuration options:
Using this validation method in conjunction with ActiveRecord::Base#save does not guarantee the absence of duplicate record insertions, because uniqueness checks on the application level are inherently prone to race conditions. For example, suppose that two users try to post a Comment at the same time, and a Comment‘s title must be unique. At the database-level, the actions performed by these users could be interleaved in the following manner:
User 1 | User 2 ------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- # User 1 checks whether there's | # already a comment with the title | # 'My Post'. This is not the case. | SELECT * FROM comments | WHERE title = 'My Post' | | | # User 2 does the same thing and also | # infers that his title is unique. | SELECT * FROM comments | WHERE title = 'My Post' | # User 1 inserts his comment. | INSERT INTO comments | (title, content) VALUES | ('My Post', 'hi!') | | | # User 2 does the same thing. | INSERT INTO comments | (title, content) VALUES | ('My Post', 'hello!') | | # ^^^^^^ | # Boom! We now have a duplicate | # title!
This could even happen if you use transactions with the ‘serializable’ isolation level. There are several ways to get around this problem:
When the database catches such a duplicate insertion, ActiveRecord::Base#save will raise an ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid exception. You can either choose to let this error propagate (which will result in the default Rails exception page being shown), or you can catch it and restart the transaction (e.g. by telling the user that the title already exists, and asking him to re-enter the title). This technique is also known as optimistic concurrency control: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimistic_concurrency_control
Active Record currently provides no way to distinguish unique index constraint errors from other types of database errors, so you will have to parse the (database-specific) exception message to detect such a case.
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 773 773: def validates_uniqueness_of(*attr_names) 774: configuration = { :case_sensitive => true } 775: configuration.update(attr_names.extract_options!) 776: 777: validates_each(attr_names,configuration) do |record, attr_name, value| 778: # The check for an existing value should be run from a class that 779: # isn't abstract. This means working down from the current class 780: # (self), to the first non-abstract class. Since classes don't know 781: # their subclasses, we have to build the hierarchy between self and 782: # the record's class. 783: class_hierarchy = [record.class] 784: while class_hierarchy.first != self 785: class_hierarchy.insert(0, class_hierarchy.first.superclass) 786: end 787: 788: # Now we can work our way down the tree to the first non-abstract 789: # class (which has a database table to query from). 790: finder_class = class_hierarchy.detect { |klass| !klass.abstract_class? } 791: 792: column = finder_class.columns_hash[attr_name.to_s] 793: 794: if value.nil? 795: comparison_operator = "IS ?" 796: elsif column.text? 797: comparison_operator = "#{connection.case_sensitive_equality_operator} ?" 798: value = column.limit ? value.to_s.mb_chars[0, column.limit] : value.to_s 799: else 800: comparison_operator = "= ?" 801: end 802: 803: sql_attribute = "#{record.class.quoted_table_name}.#{connection.quote_column_name(attr_name)}" 804: 805: if value.nil? || (configuration[:case_sensitive] || !column.text?) 806: condition_sql = "#{sql_attribute} #{comparison_operator}" 807: condition_params = [value] 808: else 809: condition_sql = "LOWER(#{sql_attribute}) #{comparison_operator}" 810: condition_params = [value.mb_chars.downcase] 811: end 812: 813: if scope = configuration[:scope] 814: Array(scope).map do |scope_item| 815: scope_value = record.send(scope_item) 816: condition_sql << " AND " << attribute_condition("#{record.class.quoted_table_name}.#{scope_item}", scope_value) 817: condition_params << scope_value 818: end 819: end 820: 821: unless record.new_record? 822: condition_sql << " AND #{record.class.quoted_table_name}.#{record.class.primary_key} <> ?" 823: condition_params << record.send(:id) 824: end 825: 826: finder_class.with_exclusive_scope do 827: if finder_class.exists?([condition_sql, *condition_params]) 828: record.errors.add(attr_name, :taken, :default => configuration[:message], :value => value) 829: end 830: end 831: end 832: end