# Validating passwords **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 9, 2007, 10:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/validating-passwords/88273 "2007-03-09T10:29:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nyxx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/13edae/32.png) [@nyxx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nyxx)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 10:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/validating-passwords/88273/1 "2007-03-09T10:29:12Z")
Hey people, I was wondering how to solve the following problem… I have a login system which uses MD5 + salts to store my users passwords in the database. Also I am working with profiles for my users which they can change. Everything goes quite okay except when we reach the change\_profile bit of the application. Because the user model has validations it performs on the password it starts throwing error when a user views the change\_profile page. The errors are there as soon as the page is loaded, even before the form gets submitted. 3 errors prohibited this candidate from being saved There were problems with the following fields: ``` * Password confirmation can't be blank * Password can't be blank * Password is too short (minimum is 4 characters) ``` Is there a way to stop the model from using it’s password validations whenever a user is changing his profile? I tried to exclude the password fields from the change\_profile form, but this still generates the same errors… Thanks in advance, Danny ---
**Author:** ![nyxx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/13edae/32.png) [@nyxx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nyxx)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/validating-passwords/88273/2 "2007-03-09T14:58:08Z")
Hi Danny, Daniel Owen van Dommelen wrote: > Because the user model has validations it performs > on the password it starts throwing error when a user > views the change\_profile page. The errors are there > as soon as the page is loaded, even before the form > gets submitted. > > 3 errors prohibited this candidate from being saved > > Is there a way to stop the model from using it’s password > validations whenever a user is changing his profile? Sorry to be dense, but I’m not getting a clear picture here and need to ask a couple of questions. Is the password stored in the User model? Is the profile part of the User model? Validations get run on three events: create, update, and save. You must be doing one of those to get the errors you’re getting. Which doesn’t make sense given your description of the situation. Or maybe I just haven’t gotten enough caffine into the system yet 😉 At any rate, you can specify which event(s) trigger the validation(s) in your validate methods. Check the ActiveRecord::Validations::ClassMethods documentation at [http://api.rubyonrails.org/](http://api.rubyonrails.org/) hth, Bill ---
**Author:** ![nyxx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/13edae/32.png) [@nyxx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nyxx)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/validating-passwords/88273/3 "2007-03-09T15:31:13Z")
Bill W. wrote: > Hi Danny, > > Daniel Owen van Dommelen wrote: > > > Because the user model has validations it performs > > on the password it starts throwing error when a user > > views the change\_profile page. The errors are there > > as soon as the page is loaded, even before the form > > gets submitted. > > > > 3 errors prohibited this candidate from being saved > > > > Is there a way to stop the model from using it’s password > > validations whenever a user is changing his profile? > > Sorry to be dense, but I’m not getting a clear picture here and need to > ask > a couple of questions. Is the password stored in the User model? Is > the > profile part of the User model? Validations get run on three events: > create, update, and save. You must be doing one of those to get the > errors > you’re getting. Which doesn’t make sense given your description of the > situation. Or maybe I just haven’t gotten enough caffine into the > system > yet 😉 At any rate, you can specify which event(s) trigger the > validation(s) in your validate methods. Check the > ActiveRecord::Validations::ClassMethods documentation at > [http://api.rubyonrails.org/](http://api.rubyonrails.org/) > > hth, > Bill Hey, thanks for replying… I believe one of the members on our team has already resolved the problem. The problem was pretty complex and at the moment I just do not have the time to completely detail it for you… Anyways, thanks again for replying, you’ll probably see me back here 😉 Ow and about the coffee, I guess that must be one of the reasons for basically everything, goigng to “the machine” right now myself…