Question

So I think its because I am merging a user id into the discussion upon create that does it, because I am validating both discussion content and title….

Discussion Model

class Discussion < ActiveRecord::Base  
  attr_accessible :user_id, :content, :title

  has_many :discussion_comments, :dependent => :destroy
  belongs_to :user

  validate :content, :presence => true,
                     :length => {:minimum => 10, :maximum => 254}
  validate :title, :presence => true,
                   :length => {:minimum => 10, :maximum => 254}
end

Discussion Controller

  def create
    @discussion = Discussion.create(params[:discussion].merge(:user_id => current_user.id))
    if @discussion.save
      redirect_to tasks_path, :flash => {:success => 'Created a new discussion'}
    else
      redirect_to tasks_path, :flash => {:error => 'Cannot create empty discussions.'}
    end
  end

Any ways, Every time I try and save an empty form, it gives me the success message when it should give me the error message.

Discussion Form

<%= form_for @discussion do |f| %>

    <p><%= f.label :title %>
    <%= f.text_field :title %></p>

    <p><%= f.label :content %>
    <%= f.text_area :content %></p>

    <p><%= f.submit %></p>

<% end %>

As stated I think it has something to do with the fact that I am merging the user id upon create, how ever the validation should stop the whole create process – no?

Answer 1

Is this Rails 3.x? Try using validates not validate. Could just be a simple typo.

So…

class Discussion < ActiveRecord::Base  
  ...

  validates :content, :presence => true,
                      :length => {:minimum => 10, :maximum => 254}
  validates :title, :presence => true,
                    :length => {:minimum => 10, :maximum => 254}
end

Ref: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_validations_callbacks.html#presence

I link to the presence example, but it should be validates regardless of which options you pass to it.