Better validates_associated method for Rails 3?

Question

Rails 3 includes the validates_associated which is automatically called when saving a nested model. The problem with the method is the message is terrible - \"Mode

Answer 1

I was having this problem, and in the end I used the solution given here by Ben Lee:

validates associated with model's error message

Ben says:

You can write your own custom validator, based on the code for the built-in validator.

Looking up the source code for validates_associated, we see that it uses the "AssociatedValidator". The source code for that is:

module ActiveRecord
  module Validations
    class AssociatedValidator < ActiveModel::EachValidator
      def validate_each(record, attribute, value)
        return if (value.is_a?(Array) ? value : [value]).collect{ |r| r.nil? || r.valid? }.all?
        record.errors.add(attribute, :invalid, options.merge(:value => value))
      end
    end

    module ClassMethods
      def validates_associated(*attr_names)
        validates_with AssociatedValidator, _merge_attributes(attr_names)
      end
    end
  end
end

So you can use this as an example to create a custom validator that bubbles error messages like this:

module ActiveRecord
  module Validations
    class AssociatedBubblingValidator < ActiveModel::EachValidator
      def validate_each(record, attribute, value)
        (value.is_a?(Array) ? value : [value]).each do |v|
          unless v.valid?
            v.errors.full_messages.each do |msg|
              record.errors.add(attribute, msg, options.merge(:value => value))
            end
          end
        end
      end
    end

    module ClassMethods
      def validates_associated_bubbling(*attr_names)
        validates_with AssociatedBubblingValidator, _merge_attributes(attr_names)
      end
    end
  end
end

You can put this code in an initializer, something like /initializers/associated_bubbling_validator.rb.

Finally, you'd validate like so:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
 validates_associated_bubbling :account
end

NOTE: the above code is completely untested, but if it doesn't work outright, it is hopefully enough to put you on the right track