Question

Rails is skipping the :format validation on create. On create, it’s accepting anything at all. Then on update :presence and :format are both working as expected. How can I alter this so it’ll :allow_blank on create and check the format too?

validates :mail, :allow_blank => true, :on => :create,
                 :format => { :with => /^([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)*[a-z]{2,})$/i },
                 :length => { :maximum => 60 },
                 :presence => true, :on => :update

Answer 1

Try using separate validates statements for :create, :update, and all life cycle events. Your :on => :update option is essentially overwriting the :on => :create option when you lump them all together.

validates :mail, :format => { :with => /^([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)*[a-z]{2,})$/i },
                 :length => { :maximum => 60 }

validates :mail, :allow_blank => true, :on => :create,

validates :mail, :presence => true, :on => :update