Class ActiveModel::Validator < Object

Active Model Validator

A simple base class that can be used along with ActiveModel::Validations::ClassMethods.validates_with

  class Person
    include ActiveModel::Validations
    validates_with MyValidator
  end

  class MyValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
    def validate(record)
      if some_complex_logic
        record.errors[:base] = "This record is invalid"
      end
    end

    private
      def some_complex_logic
        # ...
      end
  end

Any class that inherits from ActiveModel::Validator must implement a method called validate which accepts a record.

  class Person
    include ActiveModel::Validations
    validates_with MyValidator
  end

  class MyValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
    def validate(record)
      record # => The person instance being validated
      options # => Any non-standard options passed to validates_with
    end
  end

To cause a validation error, you must add to the record’s errors directly from within the validators message

  class MyValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
    def validate(record)
      record.errors.add :base, "This is some custom error message"
      record.errors.add :first_name, "This is some complex validation"
      # etc...
    end
  end

To add behavior to the initialize method, use the following signature:

  class MyValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
    def initialize(options)
      super
      @my_custom_field = options[:field_name] || :first_name
    end
  end

The easiest way to add custom validators for validating individual attributes is with the convenient ActiveModel::EachValidator. For example:

  class TitleValidator < ActiveModel::EachValidator
    def validate_each(record, attribute, value)
      record.errors.add attribute, 'must be Mr. Mrs. or Dr.' unless value.in?(['Mr.', 'Mrs.', 'Dr.'])
    end
  end

This can now be used in combination with the validates method (see ActiveModel::Validations::ClassMethods.validates for more on this)

  class Person
    include ActiveModel::Validations
    attr_accessor :title

    validates :title, :presence => true
  end

Validator may also define a setup instance method which will get called with the class that using that validator as its argument. This can be useful when there are prerequisites such as an attr_accessor being present for example:

  class MyValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
    def setup(klass)
      klass.send :attr_accessor, :custom_attribute
    end
  end

This setup method is only called when used with validation macros or the class level validates_with method.