Question

I have an object with multiple validations.

gist of the Approval model: https://gist.github.com/1579150 (side note, I know the Email Domain Validor doesn’t work…)

The point is, if these validations fail, I want the object to save, but then set a value on approval.issue = true. Approval.issue is a boolean field that defaults to false, but then if the object fails validations I want the system admin to be able to see it and then handle it appropriately.

To make it more idiot proof, it would be nice to have some validations that can force the user to make changes, but then some would be exempt and would simply trigger the .issue field to true.

For instance, if the email is of the right domain but the email doesn’t exist in the system, it would save it but then set issue => true. I could then set up a simple view for Approvals where :issue => :true. then the admin could modify or delete bad Approvals.

Ideas?

Code from gist:

class Approval < ActiveRecord::Base
  class ApproverEmailValidator < ActiveModel::EachValidator

     def validate_each(approval, attribute, value)
       approval.errors[attribute] << "must be a valid e-mail address in our system" unless is_valid_email?(value)
     end

protected
     def is_valid_email?(address)
       User.find_by_email(address)
     end

end # End Approver Validator

class EmailDomainValidator < ActiveModel::EachValidator
   def email_domain_is?(domain)
     unless /ravennainteractive.com$/ =~ email(domain)
         errors.add(:email, "You must Use an Eddie Bauer email address")
     end
   end
end #End Email Domain Validator

  belongs_to :recommendation
  attr_accessible :approval, :email, :user_id
  validates :email, :email_domain
  validates :next_approver_email, :approver_email => { :if => :recently_approved? }
  before_save :create_next_approval
  after_create :approval_notification

  attr_accessor :next_approver_email

  def recently_approved?
      self.approved_changed? && self.approved?
    end

  def create_next_approval
      next_approval = self.recommendation.approvals.build(:email => self.next_approver_email, :user_id  => User.find_by_email(next_approver_email))
      next_approval.save  if next_approver_email.present? && recently_approved? 
  end 

  def email_domain_is?
    unless /ravennainteractive.com$/ =~ email
        errors.add(:email, "You must Use an Eddie Bauer email address")
    end
  end


private
  def approval_notification
    ApprovalMailer.needs_approval(self).deliver
  end

end

Answer 1

You can implement observer for Approval that will analyze you objects before saving and set issue to “true”, if there is some suspicious input.

UPDATE: Here is short guide how to implement observer:

1. rails generate observer – after this step you`ll see _observer.rb file.

2. Implement needed methods. Here is simple example extracted from one of my projects (It seems like you should use “before_save” method):

   class HomeworkObserver < ActiveRecord::Observer
       def after_create(homework)
           TeacherMailer.send_later(:student_submitted_homework, homework)
        end
   
        def after_save(homework)
            if (homework.checked)
                StudentMailer.send_later(:teacher_checked_homework, homework)
            end
        end
   end
   

Also you need to enable observer by adding it to your config/application.rb, e.g:

    config.active_record.observers = :homework_observer

Official docs: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Observer.html