Make a field optional in rails

Question

I use paperclip to attach an avatar to users, which works fine but when a new user attempts to register it complains about the avatar bieng too small and not of the right type.<

Answer 1

I didn't use paperclip, but in general in Rails you can add condition to decide if validations should be run.

validates_attachment_size :avatar, 
  :less_than => 1.megabytes, 
  :unless => "avatar.blank?"

You should add similar condition to all validations that affects avatar. If you want know more take a look here.