Validating Nested Models

What is validation ?

Validations are required for ensuring that the received data is correct and valid. If the received data is valid then we do the further processing with the data.

Nested Model Validation

Nested model is sometimes tricky when you have complex associations. Here I'm explaining how we can do nested model validation.

We use nested form to save associations through its parent model.

Generally we do:

class Album < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_many :songs

  accepts_nested_attributes_for :songs

end

When we are using nested form we want to save a new or edit an existing album with songs.

Now suppose we want all the songs to be removed on removal of the album.

class Album < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_many :songs

  accepts_nested_attributes_for :songs, :allow_destroy => true

end

At this point we can detect and reject empty association entries

class Album < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_many :songs

  accepts_nested_attributes_for :songs,

                                                 :allow_destroy => true,

                                                 :reject_if => proc {|attrs| attrs['name'].blank? }

end

The unhappy cases start here If you also want to validate that you always have at least one associated model. We can do the following, which is close, but does not work in all situations:

class Album < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_many :songs

  accepts_nested_attributes_for :songs,

    :allow_destroy => true,

    :reject_if => proc {|attrs| attrs['name'].blank? }

  validate :must_have_one_song

  def must_have_one_song

    errors.add(:songs, 'must have one song') if songs_empty?

  end

  def songs_empty?

    songs.empty?

  end

end

This works except when we are destroying an associated model; the destroy occurs after the validations have been run, making songs_empty? true. The fix is to check the associated models to see if they are marked_for_destruction during the save, like so:

class Album < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_many :songs

  accepts_nested_attributes_for :songs,

    :allow_destroy => true,

    :reject_if => proc {|attrs| attrs['name'].blank? }

  validate :must_have_one_song

  def must_have_one_song

    errors.add(:songs, 'must have one song') if songs_empty?

  end

  def songs_empty?

    songs.empty? or songs.all? {|song| song.marked_for_destruction? }

  end

end

Now the validation will fail as expected. We might check the associated models for destruction separately to generate a more appropriate message.