Rails - Jun 2006 - model validation across multiple views

I have a rather complex object with a number of attributes.  For a variety
of reasons, I would like one view to create the object with only a couple of
fields completed, then a second and third view to finish all the fields.  I
would like the model to validate_presence_of all these fields, since
eventually I need them all there, and I would like each page to validate its
portion of the fields that that view presents.

How do I best do that?  The only thing I can think of is some kind of use of
single table inheritance, with each child object filling in a portion of the
fields of the total.  But that seems weird.  Does anyone have a better idea?

Thanks for any advice,
Shelby
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Shelby Westman <shelby.westman@gmail.com> wrote: I have a rather complex
object with a number of attributes.  For a variety of reasons, I would like one
view to create the object with only a couple of fields completed, then a second
and third view to finish all the fields.  I would like the model to
validate_presence_of all these fields, since eventually I need them all there,
and I would like each page to validate its portion of the fields that that view
presents.

How do I best do that?  The only thing I can think of is some kind of use of
single table inheritance, with each child object filling in a portion of the
fields of the total.  But that seems weird.  Does anyone have a better idea?

Thanks for any advice,
Shelby
 
As long as your object is serializable (it probably is), you can just
instantiate your model, fill in whatever you''ve got so far, slap that
sucker in the session and pull it back out in the next step.

hth,
phil
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Hi Shelby,

Object.save_with_validation(false) might give you the flexibility
you''re looking for.

hth,
Bill
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Both:

Object.save_with_validation(false) might give you the flexibility
you''re
> looking for.
>
and putting the object it in the session would work.  But neither would
allow me to validate only the portion of the object that I fill in with each
of the views that I use to gradually complete filling in all the fields of
the object.

Shelby
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Bill Walton <bill.walton@charter.net> wrote:     
Object.save_with_validation(false) might give you  the flexibility
you''re looking for.
 
The trouble in this case is you save a lot of invalid rows into your database --
what if somebody bounces before completing the process? So you then need some
way of dealing with the invalid rows and deciding whether they should get
deleted yet, or if they are still in process.

cheers,
phil
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Shelby Westman <shelby.westman@gmail.com> wrote: Both:

Object.save_with_validation (false) might give you  the flexibility
you''re looking for.



and putting the object it in the session would work.  But neither would allow me
to validate only the portion of the object that I fill in with each of the views
that I use to gradually complete filling in all the fields of the object.

Shelby




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Ahhh... good point. You can check if individual fields have errors like so:

@foo = Foo.new(params[:foo])
@foo.valid?   #No, cause we haven''t finished completing it yet!
@foo.errors.invalid? :phone  # => true if phone is invalid

There might be an even cleaner way, but I haven''t found it yet if there
is.
-phil
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Absolutely right.  As is Phillip.  Server-side validation has it''s
limitations.  You might want to consider JS validation on the client-side.

hth,
Bill
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Shelby Westman 
  To: rails@lists.rubyonrails.org 
  Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 9:09 PM
  Subject: Re: [Rails] model validation across multiple views


  Both:


    Object.save_with_validation (false) might give you the flexibility
you''re looking for.

  and putting the object it in the session would work.  But neither would allow
me to validate only the portion of the object that I fill in with each of the
views that I use to gradually complete filling in all the fields of the object.

  Shelby







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  Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
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search the mailing list for Wizards(damn gmane is down again,  
otherwise I''d send you a reference)

general idea is to use a stage (input type hidden) and then validate  
particular attributes based it,

ala,

#stage 1 entry validation
validates_presence_of :patient_id, :if => :after_stage_one, :message  
=> " must be selected"

#stage 2 entry validation
validates_presence_of :age, :if => :at_stage_two, :message => " must
be entered"
validates_numericality_of :age, :if => :at_stage_two, :only_integer  
=> true, :message => " must be numeric"


def at_stage_one
  stage == 1
end

I use this method for a 20+ entry screen. Works great.

In your controller then,

   if model.valid?

     model.save

   else
	render :partial => errors
   end

let me know if I can be more verbose.

Cheers,
Jodi

On 12-Jun-06, at 10:09 PM, Shelby Westman wrote:
> Both:
>
> Object.save_with_validation (false) might give you the flexibility  
> you''re looking for.
>
> and putting the object it in the session would work.  But neither  
> would allow me to validate only the portion of the object that I  
> fill in with each of the views that I use to gradually complete  
> filling in all the fields of the object.
>
> Shelby
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
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