For my edit_modeluser methods, I wanted to edit only those text- parameters that actually had something in it (if there's nothing in the password parameters, then don't change it!), and it almost looked like the update_attributes method was the answer, only to find out that the method overrides the validation methods in a model.
OK....That's not good. Is there some other method that can update only a single parameter AND pass through the validation ONLY on that parameter?
If not, then I guess I have to do the validation method in the controller itself.