Field names in validators

Rails
1

Hi!

Is there a (simple) way to use alternative field names in validation
messages? For example, if I have a validator like this one:

validates_presence_of :email

how can I make it print a message like “E-Mail Address can’t be blank”
instead of “Email can’t be blank”? I can override the “can’t be blank”
part by using the :message parameter, but not the “Email” part.

–
\ / [email protected]
/lad http://www.hashbang.de

2

U can override *error_messages_for. *That’s the best way to print
specific
error messages.
Or: validates_presence_of :email, :message => “Address can’t be blank”
:slight_smile:

3

“Ioana K.” [email protected] writes:

U can override *error_messages_for. *That’s the best way to print specific
error messages.

Thank you for pointing that out! I looked at the implementation of this
method and now I see that it’s actually
ActiveRecotd::Errors::full_messages,
which composes a line. Then it calls human_attribute_name, which, for
some reason, is not in the documentation.

I’m wondering, why there is no standard way to supply really
human readable names? There are plenty of cases, where simple
capitalization of database field won’t do it:

  • Internationalization
  • Customization
  • Legacy schemas
  • Unusual capitalization or special characters
  • Sometimes you may just want a better looking name

Or: validates_presence_of :email, :message => “Address can’t be blank” :slight_smile:

Hehe, it won’t print the dash between “E” and “mail”. :wink:

–
\ / [email protected]
/lad http://www.hashbang.de

4

“Ioana K.” [email protected] writes:

def human_attribute_name (attr)
return case attr
when ‘email’ then ‘E-mail:D’
else super.human_attribute_name attr
end
end

This seems to be the way to go. There are 2 problems though. First, it
must be a class method, otherwise it won’t be found. And second, for
some reason super.human_attribute_name can’t be called, I get the
following error:

,----
| undefined method human_attribute_name' for "Email":String ----

The following code worked for me:

,----
| def self.human_attribute_name (attr)
| return case attr
| when ‘email’ then ‘E-mail address’
| # …
| else attr.humanize
| end
| end
`----

I’ll probably make a database table to translate column names to human
names and query it in the above method.

P.S. I still don’t understand, why super.human_attribute_name(attr) did
not work instead of attr.humanize.

But look what I found:
http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToUseValidationsWithoutExtendingActiveRecord/versions/1
(good article for me to read it too). Heh

Interesting idea, but not needed in my case, because my model is
inherited from ActiveRecord::Base.

–
\ / [email protected]
/lad http://www.hashbang.de

5

In the api there is no presence of <human_attribute_name>, aparently,
but I
google it.

def human_attribute_name (attr)
return case attr
when ‘email’ then ‘E-mail:D’
else super.human_attribute_name attr
end
end

But look what I found:
http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToUseValidationsWithoutExtendingActiveRecord/versions/1
(good article for me to read it too). Heh

6

A much delayed comment to this thread…

Vlad Berditchevskiy wrote:

P.S. I still don’t understand, why super.human_attribute_name(attr) did
not work instead of attr.humanize.

But this works, right?

ActiveRecord::Base.human_attribute_name(attr)

\David