In Rails 3, how can I skip validation of the password field when I'm not attempting to update the password?

Question

My User model contains :name, :email, and :password fields. All 3 have validations for length. An \"update account\" web page allows the user to update his name and email

Answer 1

My application does something like this

attr_accessor :updating_password

validates_confirmation_of :password, :if => should_validate_password?

def should_validate_password?
  updating_password || new_record?
end

so you have to model.updating_password = true for the verification to take place, and you don't have to do this on creation.

Which I found at a good railscast at http://railscasts.com/episodes/41-conditional-validations

Answer 2

In your user model, you could just ignore the password validation if it's not set.

validates_length_of :password, :minimum => N, :unless => lambda {|u| u.password.nil? }

Answer 3

Using update_attributes will not change the value of the password if there is no key for it in the params hash.

Validation doesn't run against the changed fields only. It validates existing values too.

Your validation must be failing because the password field contains some invalid content that's already saved in the database. I'm guessing it's probably because you're hashing it after validation and you're trying to validate the hashed string.

You can use a virtual attribute (an instance variable or method) that you validate with a custom method, and then assign the hash to the stored password field. Have a look at this technique for ideas.

Answer 4

An app that I am working on uses the following:

    validates_confirmation_of :password, 
                              :if => Proc.new { |account| 
                                                !account.password.blank? 
                                                || !account.password_confirmation.blank? 
                                                || account.new_record? }

Depending on your requirements, you might want to remove the new_record? check

Answer 5

When password is added then only confirmation will be called and presence will call on create action only   

   **validates_presence_of :password, :on =>:create**

   **validates_confirmation_of :password**