# Form validation on non-CRUD activities **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 1, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/form-validation-on-non-crud-activities/169245 "2009-06-01T11:21:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tom\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/13edae/32.png) [@Tom\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tom_R)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/form-validation-on-non-crud-activities/169245/1 "2009-06-01T11:21:27Z")
Hi there, I’m relativity new to Rails (I’ve been eying it for some time, though). I’m reasonably familiar with Ruby’s syntax. When I pick up a new language, I like to make a simple blog. I’m focusing on the authentication at the moment. I am well aware of the existing plugins out there, but since this application will never see the light of day and I learning by rolling my own. Now, let’s say I have a login form, how do I validate that? I’m not saving into a model, or anything like that. At this stage, I’m just using a form\_tag, and doing simple if params[:username] == ‘’ in the controller. Very ugly indeed. What is the best way to validate a form (and get the nice error messages, like when you are scaffolding) when you are not necessarily saving data? Cheers. Tom. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/13edae/32.png) [@Tom\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tom_R)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/form-validation-on-non-crud-activities/169245/2 "2009-06-01T13:08:35Z")
Here’s what i use - [http://github.com/staugaard/active\_record\_base\_without\_table/tree/master](http://github.com/staugaard/active_record_base_without_table/tree/master) - Maurício Linhares [http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/](http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/) (pt-br) | [http://blog.codevader.com/](http://blog.codevader.com/) (en)