# Preventing users from using your app name in their name

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/preventing-users-from-using-your-app-name-in-their-name/149101>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 20, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/preventing-users-from-using-your-app-name-in-their-name/149101 "2008-09-20T14:18:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chunkyslink)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/preventing-users-from-using-your-app-name-in-their-name/149101/1 "2008-09-20T14:18:12Z")

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Is there a Rails validation helper or an easy way of preventing  
attributes from containing a certain word match, e.g. you have a User  
model, the user has a name attribute, and you don’t want the @user.name  
to == ‘MyRailsApp’ or to have ‘MyRailsApp’ somewhere in there?

I imagine it would look something like this (although I can’t get this  
one to work - it always fails);

validates\_format\_of :name, :with =\> /!MyRailsApp/i, :message =\> “You  
can’t use our Website name.”

Any ideas?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chunkyslink)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/preventing-users-from-using-your-app-name-in-their-name/149101/2 "2008-09-20T17:27:45Z")

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On Sep 20, 8:18 pm, Neil C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> ## Any ideas?
> 
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Try this one:

validates\_each :name do |record, attr, value|  
record.errors.add attr, “can’t use our Website name.” if value =~ /  
MyRailsApp/i  
end

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chunkyslink)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/preventing-users-from-using-your-app-name-in-their-name/149101/3 "2008-09-20T17:34:55Z")

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Neil C. wrote:

> Any ideas?

Try validates\_exclusion\_of

[http://www.railsbrain.com/api/rails-2.1.0/doc/index.html?a=M001745&name=validates\_exclusion\_of](http://www.railsbrain.com/api/rails-2.1.0/doc/index.html?a=M001745&name=validates_exclusion_of)

Peace.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chunkyslink)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/preventing-users-from-using-your-app-name-in-their-name/149101/4 "2008-09-20T17:43:57Z")

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Erol F. wrote:

> On Sep 20, 8:18�pm, Neil C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
> wrote:
> 
> > ## Any ideas?
> > 
> > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> 
> Try this one:
> 
> validates\_each :name do |record, attr, value|  
> record.errors.add attr, “can’t use our Website name.” if value =~ /  
> MyRailsApp/i  
> end

That one works great, thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chunkyslink)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/preventing-users-from-using-your-app-name-in-their-name/149101/5 "2008-09-20T17:44:48Z")

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Phillip K. wrote:

> Neil C. wrote:
> 
> > Any ideas?
> 
> Try validates\_exclusion\_of
> 
> [http://www.railsbrain.com/api/rails-2.1.0/doc/index.html?a=M001745&name=validates\_exclusion\_of](http://www.railsbrain.com/api/rails-2.1.0/doc/index.html?a=M001745&name=validates_exclusion_of)
> 
> Peace.

Thanks, Phillip. I found validates\_exclusion\_of soon after posting but,  
I couldn’t make it case sensitive.