Error_messages_for question

Rails
1

Hi I got a question about error_messages_for helper method in rails. I
read that keeping it in the view helps report validation failure. I have
used as follows in checkout.rhtml:

checkout.rhtml:

<%=error_messages_for 'customer'%> <%form_for :customer .....%> ............ <%end%>

customer.rb:
…
validates_uniqueness_of :name
…

Now, if I try to give the same name twice, it should display its default
message “has already been taken” but mine doesn’t just the checkout page
is redisplayed. Any suggestions…

thanks.

2

Instead of

<%= error_messages_for ‘customer’ %>

which is telling error_messages_for to display errors for the string
‘customer’, which I don’t expect to ever work, you should probably use

<%= error_messages_for @customer %>

assuming that your controller action sets @customer for use by the view.
If
that’s not the case, could you show us the code for your action?

Regards,
Craig

3

Craig D. wrote:

Instead of

<%= error_messages_for ‘customer’ %>

which is telling error_messages_for to display errors for the string
‘customer’, which I don’t expect to ever work, you should probably use

<%= error_messages_for @customer %>

assuming that your controller action sets @customer for use by the view.
If
that’s not the case, could you show us the code for your action?

Regards,
Craig

Thank Craig for the reply. I did as you said but ended up getting error
“@<Customer not allowed” something like this, so I instead did the other
way:
def checkout
customer = Customer.new
end

and then: <%=error_messages_for ‘customer’%>

it worked but I get ugly underline in customer = Customer.new saying
that customer hasn’t been used. Also I have made .css file for the
flash[:notice] but its not getting applied to the generated error
message while it does to other error msgs. By the way the above
mentioned checkout action is exactly as I’ve put in the controller and
in the view as I’ve mentioned in my 1st post. Thanks.

4

error_messages_for ‘customer’

by convention looks for @customer. In your controller action, you need
to do

def checkout
@customer = Customer.new
end

Once you have error_messages_for working, you can view the source of
your
page to see that error_messages_for generates specific markup for the
errors.

1 error prohibited this billing plan from being saved

There were problems with the following fields:

  • Name can't be blank

(Of course, the text in your error message(s) will be different.)
Knowing
the markup, you should be able to style it as you like.

Regards,
Craig