ActiveRecord Validations, Season 2

Ror lab. season 2
- the 6th round -

Active Record
Validations

September 15th, 2012

Hyoseong Choi
ROR Lab.

Contents
Validations Callbacks
• The Object Life Cycle • Callbacks Overview
• Validations Overview • Available Callbacks
• Validation Helpers • Running Callbacks
• Common Validation • Skipping Callbacks
Options • Halting Execution
• Conditional Validation • Relational Callbacks
• Custom Validations • Conditional Callbacks
• Working with Validation • Callback Classes
Errors
• Observers
• Displaying Validation Errors
• Transaction Callbacks
in the View

ROR Lab.

Validation Levels

• Native DB constraints - DB-dependent
• Client-side validations - javascript ?
• Controller-level validations - keep skinny
• Model-level validations - the best way

ROR Lab.

“new” method
• A new object instantiated vs. persisted?

• not yet to store to database : new_record?
• no validation called, but ...

ROR Lab.

Validation Time Point
ActiveRecord
Web Server

Model DB
Validation
save
create
update
clients
Model-level validations

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Validation Event
Triggering validations Skipping validations
• .create • .decrement!
• .create! • #decrement_counter
• .save • .increment!
• .save! • #increment_counter
• #update • .toggle!
• .update_attributes • .touch
• .update_attributes! • #update_all
• .update_attribute deprecated
• .update_column
• #update_counters

Ref.: ActiveRecord::Persistence ActiveRecord::CounterCache
ROR Lab.

Call Validations
• valid? or invalid?

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valid? vs Errors

By deﬁnition,
an object is valid if this collection is empty
after running validations.

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Validation Helpers
• acceptance • validates_associated
• conﬁrmation • validates_each
• exclusion • validates_with
• format
• inclusion :on
• save(default)
• create
• length • update

• numericality :message
• presence
• uniqueness
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Common Options

:allow_nil - nil
:allow_blank - nil or whitespace
:message - overriding default error message
:on - :create / :update / :save

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Conditional Validation
:if and :unless

• A Symbol : a method name
• A String : a really short condition
• A Proc : an inline condition
Grouping conditions : with_options

ROR Lab.

Custom Validations
• Custom validators modules
: inherited from Two
★ ActiveModel::Validator
★ ActiveModel::EachValidator
★ Get the “record” argument as a
parameter
• Custom validation methods
• Custom validation helpers

ROR Lab.

Working with
Validation Errors
• errors
• errors.messages
• errors.full_messages( or errors.to_a)
• errors[:attr] : for a speciﬁc attribute
• errors.add(:attr, message)(or errors[:attr]=)
• errors[:base] : object’s state as a whole
• errors.clear : intentionally to clear
• errors.size : count of errors
ROR Lab.

Displaying Validation
Errors in the View
★ gem ‘dynamic_form’ ★ Error Messages CSS

.ﬁeld_with_errors
#errorExplanation
#errorExplanation h2
#errorExplanation p
#errorExplanation ul li

ROR Lab.

Validation Errors : https://github.com/joelmoss/dynamic_form

Error CSS
#error_explanation

#error_explanation h2
#error_explanation p
<%= form_for(@product) do |f| %>

<% if @product.errors.any? %>
<div id="error_explanation"> #error_explanation ul li
<h2><%= pluralize(@product.errors.count, "error") %>
prohibited this product from being saved:
</h2>
<ul>
<% @product.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>
<li><%= msg %></li>
<% end %>
</ul>
</div>
<% end %> .ﬁeld_with_errors

generated by scaffold

apps/assets/stylesheets/scaffolds.css.scss
ROR Lab.


Error CSS
#error_explanation
#error_explanation h2
<% if @product.errors.any? %> #error_explanation p
<div id="error_explanation">
<h2><%= pluralize(@product.errors.count, "error") %>
#error_explanation ul li
prohibited this product from being saved:
</h2>
<ul>
<% @product.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>
<li><%= msg %></li> .ﬁeld_with_errors
<% end %>
</ul>
</div>
<% end %>


apps/assets/stylesheets/scaffolds.css.scss
ROR Lab.


Error CSS
apps/assets
/stylesheets
/scaffolds.css.scss #error_explanation

.ﬁeld_with_errors { #error_explanation h2
padding: 2px;
background-color: red; #error_explanation p
display: table;
}

#error_explanation { #error_explanation ul li
width: 450px;
border: 2px solid red;
padding: 7px;
padding-bottom: 0;
margin-bottom: 20px;
background-color: #f0f0f0;
h2 { .ﬁeld_with_errors
text-align: left;
font-weight: bold;
padding: 5px 5px 5px 15px;
font-size: 12px;
margin: -7px;
margin-bottom: 0px;
background-color: #c00;
color: #fff;
}
ul li {
font-size: 12px;
list-style: square;

ROR Lab.

Validation Errors :

‘dynamic_form’
• f.error_messages or
• error_messages_for :product


<%= f.error_messages %>

<% end %>

ROR Lab.


‘dynamic_form’

generated by dynamic_form
r_ tag
e
:h ead :header_message
:message

<%= f.error_messages
:header_message => "Invalid product!",
:message => "You'll need to ﬁx the following ﬁelds:",
:header_tag => :h3 %>

ROR Lab.


Error HTML
config/initializers/custom_error_message_html.rb field object

ActionView::Base.field_error_proc = Proc.new do |html_tag, instance|
errors = Array(instance.error_message).join(',')
unless html_tag =~ /^<label/
%(#{html_tag}<span class="validation-error"> #{errors}</span>).html_safe
else
%(#{html_tag}).html_safe
end
end

#{html_tag} .validation-error

ROR Lab.


Error HTML
<% if @product.errors.any? %>
<div id="error_explanation">
<h2><%= pluralize(@product.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited this product from being saved:</h2>
</div>
<% end %>

ROR Lab.

Active Record
Counter Cache

• #decrement_counter
• #increment_counter skipping
• #reset_counters validations

• #update_counters
ROR Lab.

decrement vs
decrement!

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toggle vs
toggle!

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#update_all

ROR Lab.

.update_column

ROR Lab.

Validation Helpers :

acceptance
• a checkbox : a real or virtual attribute
• “must be accepted”
class Person ActiveRecord::Base
validates :terms_of_service, :acceptance = true

validates :terms_of_service,
:acceptance = { :accept = 'yes' }

ROR Lab.


validates_associated
• should if associated with other models
• “is invalid”
class Library ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :books
validates_associated :books

• should use on one end of your
associations

ROR Lab.


confirmation
• a virtual attribute appended with
“_confirmation”
• “doesn’t match confirmation”
validates :email, :confirmation = true
validates :email_confirmation, :presence = true

%= text_field :person, :email %
%= text_field :person, :email_confirmation %

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exclusion
• not included in a given set
:any enumerable object
• “is reserved”
class Account ActiveRecord::Base
validates :subdomain,
:exclusion = {
:in = %w(www us ca jp),
:message = Subdomain %{value} is reserved. }

ROR Lab.


format
• match a given regular expression
• “is invalid”

class Product ActiveRecord::Base
validates :legacy_code,
:format = { :with = /A[a-zA-Z]+z/,
:message = Only letters allowed }

ROR Lab.


inclusion
• included in a given set
: any enumerable object
• “is not included in the list”
class Coffee ActiveRecord::Base
validates :size,
:inclusion = {
:in = %w(small medium large),
:message = %{value} is not a valid size
}

ROR Lab.


length (1/2)

• length constraint options
- :minimum, :maximum, :in/:within, :is
- a placeholder - %{count}

  validates :name, :length = { :minimum = 2 }
  validates :bio, :length = { :maximum = 500 }
  validates :password, :length = { :in = 6..20 }
  validates :registration_number, :length = { :is = 6 }

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length (2/2)

• options
- :wrong_length, :too_long, :too_short
- a placeholder - %{count}
class Essay ActiveRecord::Base
  validates :content, :size = {
    :minimum   = 300,
    :maximum   = 400,
    :tokenizer = lambda { |str| str.scan(/w+/) },
    :too_short = must have at least %{count} words,
    :too_long = must have at most %{count} words
  }

ROR Lab.


numericality (1/2)

• only numeric values
: (+/−) integer/floating point
• “is not a number”
validates :email, :confirmation = true
validates :email_confirmation, :presence = true

%= text_field :person, :email %
%= text_field :person, :email_confirmation %

ROR Lab.


numericality (2/2)

class Player ActiveRecord::Base
validates :points, :numericality = true
validates :games_played,
:numericality = { :only_integer = true }

/A[+−]?d+Z/

•:greater_than ➡ “must be greater than %{count}”
•:greater_than_or_equal_to ➡ “must be greater than or equal to %{count}
•:equal_to ➡ “must be equal to %{count}”
•:less_than ➡ “must be less than %{count}”
•:less_than_or_equal_to ➡ “must be less than or equal to %{count}
•:odd ➡ “must be odd”
•:even ➡ “must be even”

ROR Lab.


presence (1/2)
• empty or whitespaces
• “can’t be empty”
  validates :name, :login, :email, :presence = true
end

class LineItem ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :order
  validates :order_id, :presence = true

ROR Lab.


presence (2/2)
• empty or whitespaces
• “can’t be empty”

✘
validates :is_admin, :presence = true
end a boolean ﬁeld ➞ false.blank? is true

validates :is_admin,
:inclusion = { :in = [true, false] }

ROR Lab.


uniqueness
• add_index :table_name, :column_name, unique = true
• “has already been taken”
  validates :email, :uniqueness = true other
end attributes
class Holiday ActiveRecord::Base
  validates :name, :uniqueness = { :scope = :year,
    :message = should happen once per year }
end
  validates :name,
:uniqueness = { :case_sensitive = false }

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validates_with (1/2)
• a separate class for validation
• no default validate error message
  validates_with GoodnessValidator,[:if/:unless/:on]
end

class GoodnessValidator ActiveModel::Validator
  def validate(record)
    if record.ﬁrst_name == Evil
      record.errors[:base] This person is evil
    end
  end

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validates_with (2/2)
• any additional options ➞ options
  validates_with GoodnessValidator, :fields =
[:first_name, :last_name]
end

class GoodnessValidator ActiveModel::Validator
    if options[:fields].any?{|field| record.send(field) == Evil }
      record.errors[:base] This person is evil
    end
  end
end

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validates_each
• no predeﬁned validation function
➞a block
• no default error message
  validates_each :name, :surname do |record, attr, value|
    record.errors.add(attr, 'must start with upper case') if value =~ /A[a-z]/
  end
end

ROR Lab.

Common Validation Options :

:allow_nil

class Coffee ActiveRecord::Base
validates :size,
:inclusion = { :in = %w(small medium large),
:message = %{value} is not a valid size },
:allow_nil = true

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:allow_blank
• nil or an empty string
class Topic ActiveRecord::Base
validates :title,
:length = { :is = 5 },
:allow_blank = true
end

Topic.create(title = ).valid? # = true

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:on
• when the validation should happen
  # it will be possible to update email with a duplicated value
  validates :email, :uniqueness = true, :on = :create

  # it will be possible to create the record with a non-numerical age
  validates :age, :numericality = true, :on = :update

  # the default (validates on both create and update)
  validates :name, :presence = true, :on = :save

ROR Lab.


:if :unless (1/4)

• Using a Symbol : a method name
class Order ActiveRecord::Base
  validates :card_number, :presence = true,
:if = :paid_with_card?

  def paid_with_card?
    payment_type == card
  end

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:if :unless (2/4)

• Using a String : a really short condition
validates :surname, :presence = true,
:if = name.nil?

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:if :unless (3/4)

• Using a Proc : an inline condition
validates :password, :conﬁrmation = true,
:unless = Proc.new { |a| a.password.blank? }
a model
object

ROR Lab.


:if :unless (4/4)

• grouping conditional validations
condition
object
class User ActiveRecord::Base
  with_options :if = :is_admin? do |admin|
    admin.validates :password, :length = { :minimum = 10 }
    admin.validates :email, :presence = true
  end

ROR Lab.

Custom Validations :

Custom Validators (1/2)
• to extend ActiveMode::Validator
• to validate the state of whole record
class MyValidator ActiveModel::Validator
    unless record.name.starts_with? 'X'
      record.errors[:name] 'Need a name starting with X please!'
    end
  end
end

class Person
  include ActiveModel::Validations
  validates_with MyValidator
end

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Custom Validators (2/2)
• to extend ActiveMode::EachValidator
• to validate individual attributes
class EmailValidator ActiveModel::EachValidator
  def validate_each(record, attribute, value)
    unless value =~ /A([^@s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+.)+[a-z]{2,})z/i
      record.errors[attribute] (options[:message] || is not an email)
    end
  end
end
EmailValidator
  validates :email, :presence = true, :email = true
end

ROR Lab.


Custom Methods (1/2)
• to verify the state of models
class Invoice ActiveRecord::Base
  validate :expiration_date_cannot_be_in_the_past,
    :discount_cannot_be_greater_than_total_value

  def expiration_date_cannot_be_in_the_past
    if !expiration_date.blank? and expiration_date Date.today
      errors.add(:expiration_date, can't be in the past)
    end
  end EmailValidator

  def discount_cannot_be_greater_than_total_value
    if discount total_value
      errors.add(:discount, can't be greater than total value)
    end
  end
end

ROR Lab.


Custom Methods (2/2)
• to verify the state of models
class Invoice ActiveRecord::Base
  validate :active_customer, :on = :create

  def active_customer
    errors.add(:customer_id, is not active)
unless customer.active?
  end

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Custom Helpers
• to reuse in several different models
• to put in conﬁg/initializers
ActiveRecord::Base.class_eval do
  def self.validates_as_choice(attr_name, n, options={})
    validates attr_name,
:inclusion = { { :in = 1..n }.merge!(options) }
  end
end

class Movie ActiveRecord::Base
  validates_as_choice :rating, 5
end

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Validation Errors :

errors
• an instance of ActiveModel::Errors
• key : attribute name
value : an array of strings with all errors
validates :name, :presence = true, :length = { :minimum = 3 }
end

person = Person.new
person.valid? # = false
person.errors
# = {:name =
[can't be blank, is too short (minimum is 3 characters)]}

person = Person.new(:name = John Doe)
person.valid? # = true
person.errors # = []

ROR Lab.

Validation Errors :

errors[ ]
• to check the error message of a speciﬁc
attribute
validates :name, :presence = true, :length = { :minimum = 3 }
end

person = Person.new(:name = John Doe)
person.valid? # = true
person.errors[:name] # = []

person = Person.new(:name = JD)
person.errors[:name] # = [is too short (minimum is 3 characters)]

person = Person.new
person.errors[:name]
# = [can't be blank, is too short (minimum is 3 characters)]

ROR Lab.

Validation Errors :

errors.add (1/2)

• to manually add messages of a speciﬁc
attribute
  def a_method_used_for_validation_purposes
    errors.add(:name, cannot contain the characters !@#%*()_-+=)
  end
end

person = Person.create(:name = !@#)

# = [cannot contain the characters !@#%*()_-+=]

person.errors.full_messages
# = [Name cannot contain the characters !@#%*()_-+=]

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Validation Errors :

errors.add (2/2)

-or-
    errors[:name] = cannot contain the characters !@#%*()_-+=)
  end
end

person = Person.create(:name = !@#)

# = [cannot contain the characters !@#%*()_-+=]

person.errors.to_a
# = [Name cannot contain the characters !@#%*()_-+=]

ROR Lab.

Validation Errors :

errors[:base]
• related to the object’s state as a whole
• an array
    errors[:base] This person is invalid because ...
  end
end

ROR Lab.

ActiveRecord Validations, Season 2

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Editor's Notes