Errors and flash[:error]

rubyonrails-talk
1

What is the relationship, if any, between the errors array for one of my models and flash[:error]? Are validation errors automatically added to the flash? Is there a helper I can use in my view to merge the results?

Situation:

I provide a form, of sorts, for creating HABTM relationships between two other models. The HABTM model does a bunch of validation to make sure it won't save an invalid record. Additionally, each of the models being associated has an "owner" and I need to verify in my controller that the owner matches my session data to prevent somebody from creating associations on someone else's behalf.

I'd like to provide a bullet list of the combined results of validation errors and session matching errors.

The UI on my form should prevent both types of errors. So from the end user's perspective there is no meaningful difference.

2

I provide a form, of sorts, for creating HABTM relationships between two other models.

Not sure if I understand your issue, but I believe you are looking at nested resources and nested forms.

I'd like to provide a bullet list of the combined results of validation errors and session matching errors.

Rails can do this automatically for you if you generate a scaffolding. But if you are looking for going through the created hash for the message, take a look at:

The UI on my form should prevent both types of errors. So from the end user's perspective there is no meaningful difference.

You must to the attribute verification in its own model, rails will take care of the rest, the flash error message will display the validations for both models.

3

> I provide a form, of sorts, for creating HABTM relationships between > two other models.

Not sure if I understand your issue, but I believe you are looking at nested resources and nested forms.

Thanks Miguel, I realize my question wasn't clear. Some of the details I provided are unnecessary. The important parts are: 1. My controller has a create action that verifies the current user has permissions to create this specific record. I'm reporting errors to this verification via flash[:error]. 2. The model being created has it's own validation to ensure that only valid records are saved. I'm reporting errors to this validation via the errors object.

My inexperienced RoR question is: how do I consolidate errors from both sources (controller and model validation) and report back to the user?

> I'd like to provide a bullet list of the combined results of > validation errors and session matching errors.

Rails can do this automatically for you if you generate a scaffolding. But if you are looking for going through the created hash for the message, take a look at:#18 Looping Through Flash - RailsCasts

Great suggestion, I didn't realize this would be wired up by default in scaffolding. I created a new project and think I can now answer my own question. A form partial was generated, and it will display all of the error messages in the errors object:

   <div id="error_explanation">       <h2><%= pluralize(@stuff.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited this stuff from being saved:</h2>

      <ul>       <% @stuff.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>         <li><%= msg %></li>       <% end %>       </ul>     </div>

The generated views do not show anything from flash[:error] (furthermore flash[:error] is not the means of showing model validation errors). So I guess the obvious answer to my question is to use a variation that shows both:

  <% if @stuff.errors.any? or !flash[:error].blank?%>     <div id="error_explanation">       <ul>       <% @stuff.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>         <li><%= msg %></li>       <% end %>       <% unless flash[:error].blank? %>         <li><%= flash[:error] %></li>       <% end %>       </ul>     </div>   <% end %>

Does this approach look reasonable? I'm mildly concerned that rails doesn't offer a convenient way to combine the data. That hints that I might be doing things a bit unconventionally.