Question

add_column :users, :role, :string

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :email, :password, :remember_me, :username
  devise :database_authenticatable, ................
  validates_uniqueness_of :username, :email
  before_create :setup_default_role_for_new_users
  ROLES = %w[admin default banned]

  private
  def setup_default_role_for_new_users
    if self.role.blank?
      self.role = "default"
    end
  end
end

Is there a way I can specifically validate a name in my :role column? I would like to make my "admin" role unique so I can guranteed its not used again for security reasons.

Answer 1

If you only have the one admin role you could do something like this:

validates_uniqueness_of :name, :if => lambda {|user| user.role == 'admin' }

If things start to get more complex, you could explore using Single Table Inheritance to separate the logic for each type of user into a separate class.