# Guides on ActiveRecord error I18n seem to be WRONG

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/guides-on-activerecord-error-i18n-seem-to-be-wrong/160929>\
**Category:** Rails I18n\
**Created:** [February 21, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/guides-on-activerecord-error-i18n-seem-to-be-wrong/160929 "2009-02-21T01:08:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![absolute-beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@absolute-beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/absolute-beginner)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/guides-on-activerecord-error-i18n-seem-to-be-wrong/160929/1 "2009-02-21T01:08:06Z")

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Hi everyone.

I was trying to customize AR validation error messages and came across  
this kind of message lookup order, which EVERY I18n guide in existence  
seems to be giving:

```auto
activerecord.errors.messages.models.user.attributes.name.blank
activerecord.errors.messages.models.user.blank
activerecord.errors.messages.blank

```

I tried to follow that, but, to my surprise, only least-detailed variant  
worked: “activerecord.errors.messages.blank”.

After a bit of research I’ve found out that lookup paths for Rails 2.2.2  
are different from what’s stated above.

I.e. the ACTUAL paths being used are:

```auto
activerecord.errors.models.user.attributes.name.blank
activerecord.errors.models.user.blank
activerecord.errors.messages.blank

```

My test localization yaml is (model name is ‘script’):

```auto
en:
  activerecord:
    errors:
      messages:
        blank: I'm errors.messages.blank

        models:
          script:
            # As documented, doesn't work.
            blank: I'm errors.messages.models.script.blank

            attributes:
              name:
                # As documented, doesn't work.
                blank: I'm
errors.messages.models.script.attributes.name.blank

      models:
        script:
          # Not as documented, but it works.
          blank: I'm errors.MODELS.script.blank

          attributes:
            name:
               # Not as documented, but it works.
               blank: I'm errors.MODELS.script.attributes.name.blank

```

That kind of discrepancy in I18n guides seems rather serious to me, so  
I’m asking everyone who’s in contact with guide authors or wikis to fix  
AR message lookup paths in documentation.

If that’s a confusion or version mismatch on my side, please correct me.  
I’m using Rails 2.2.2.

Here are some guide links that seem to be WRONG:

> **[rails.info](http://guides.rails.info/i18n.html)**
>
> Ruby on Rails,Rails Tutorial,Ruby Basics,Rails 4,Bar Rails,Rail

[http://rails-i18n.org/wiki/pages/i18n-rails-guide](http://rails-i18n.org/wiki/pages/i18n-rails-guide)  
(and more, just search for ‘activerecord.errors.messages.models.user’)

This page is RIGHT on lookup order:  
[http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Errors.html](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Errors.html)

Alex

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![absolute-beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@absolute-beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/absolute-beginner)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/guides-on-activerecord-error-i18n-seem-to-be-wrong/160929/2 "2009-03-20T17:33:25Z")

</div>

Thanks for pointing this out. Saved my day.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![absolute-beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@absolute-beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/absolute-beginner)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/guides-on-activerecord-error-i18n-seem-to-be-wrong/160929/3 "2009-03-20T17:38:22Z")

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Mr. Ronald wrote:

> Thanks for pointing this out. Saved my day.

Guide at guides.rails.info has already been fixed by guide maintainer,  
Karel.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![absolute-beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@absolute-beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/absolute-beginner)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/guides-on-activerecord-error-i18n-seem-to-be-wrong/160929/4 "2009-03-20T17:51:30Z")

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But isn’t there still an error in  
[http://rails-i18n.org/wiki/pages/i18n-rails-guide](http://rails-i18n.org/wiki/pages/i18n-rails-guide)

activerecord.errors.messages.models.user.attributes.name.blank

which should be

activerecord.errors.models.user.attributes.name.blank

right?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![absolute-beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@absolute-beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/absolute-beginner)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/guides-on-activerecord-error-i18n-seem-to-be-wrong/160929/5 "2009-03-21T23:08:46Z")

</div>

On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Mr. Ronald [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> But isn’t there still an error in  
> [http://rails-i18n.org/wiki/pages/i18n-rails-guide](http://rails-i18n.org/wiki/pages/i18n-rails-guide)

Yeah don’t rely on that page, it is just draft.

The i18n guide is at [Rails Internationalization (I18n) API — Ruby on Rails Guides](http://guides.rubyonrails.org/i18n.html).