Question

I have a validation that checks the format of a url using regex. I was wondering if it’s possible to put the regex inside of a method:

validates_format_of :table_name :with => /^(http|https):\/\/[a-z0-9]+([_-.]{1}[a-z0-9]+).[a-z]{2,5}(:[0-9]{1,5})?(\/.)?$/ix

How do I put that regex in a method and use it with the validation?

Answer 1

It’ll work with any class method, or variable/constant that’s already defined. But why don’t you create a new validator?

# config/initializers/my_validators.rb
ActiveRecord::Base.class_eval do
  def self.validates_url_of(attr_name, n, options={})
    validates_format_of attr_name, :with => /^(http|https):\/\/[a-z0-9]+([_-.]{1}[a-z0-9]+).[a-z]{2,5}(:[0-9]{1,5})?(\/.)?$/ix
  end
end

Then:

class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates_url_of :attribute
end