I know the debate of whether this should validate has been rehashed many times. My question is, what are the consequences of overriding this method to force validation? Will this break fundamental things? Will it break plugins? Is there a reason not to have a strict validation option?
In my code I will never use this as I consider it a terribly broken method, but some gems use it and in one case I was just burned.
I do not want invalid objects in my database under any circumstances, since the rest of my code rationally depends on validations - e.g. I don't check for null associations when the association is validated to be there.
For the uninitiated, update_attribute:
1) Does not ever validate the object, causing a massive hole in your validation schemes. For instance, if a validation depends on anything you update with update_attribute, that validation will not work.
2) Updates ALL fields if the object has been modified. @user.email = 'invalidemail'; @user.update_attribute(:state, 'registered'); will always put an invalid email in your database.
3) Saves the object regardless of whether it's been persisted. E.g. User.new.update_attribute(:state, 'registered') will always save a new user object, even if you have all kinds of validations to guarantee associations and properties are present. This is likely to seriously break your application if it happens.
