Hey there. Let's assume you have some set like this <pre><span class="keyword">class </span><span class="class">User</span> <span class="punct">&lt;</span> <span class="constant">ActiveRecord</span><span class="punct">::</span><span class="constant">Base</span> <span class="ident">has_one</span> <span class="symbol">:profile</span> <span class="punct">,</span> <span class="symbol">:dependent</span> <span class="punct">=&gt;</span> <span class="symbol">:destroy</span> <span class="keyword">end</span> <span class="keyword">class </span><span class="class">Profile</span> <span class="punct">&lt;</span> <span class="constant">ActiveRecord</span><span class="punct">::</span><span class="constant">Base</span> <span class="ident">belongs_to</span> <span class="symbol">:user</span> <span class="ident">validates_presence_of</span> <span class="symbol">:first_name</span><span class="punct">,</span> <span class="symbol">:last_name</span> <span class="keyword">end</span> </pre> <p> And you create the profile in the same view as your user. How do you validate those first_name and last_name fields with a friendly message for your user? <br /> Well, you could use <a href="http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Validations/ClassMethods.html#M001642"> validates_associated</a>, but you would end up with a message like "Profile is invalid". Now, how friendly is that? </p> <p> To obtain a more precise message, use this on you user.rb </p> <pre><span class="keyword">def </span><span class="method">validate</span> <span class="keyword">if</span> <span class="constant">self</span><span class="punct">.</span><span class="ident">profile</span> <span class="constant">self</span><span class="punct">.</span><span class="ident">profile</span><span class="punct">.</span><span class="ident">errors</span><span class="punct">.</span><span class="ident">each</span> <span class="keyword">do</span> <span class="punct">|</span><span class="ident">error</span><span class="punct">|</span> <span class="constant">self</span><span class="punct">.</span><span class="ident">errors</span><span class="punct">.</span><span class="ident">add_to_base</span> <span class="ident">error</span><span class="punct">.</span><span class="ident">join</span><span class="punct">('</span><span class="string"> </span><span class="punct">')</span> <span class="keyword">end</span> <span class="keyword">end</span> <span class="keyword">end</span> </pre> 2008-11-13T15:07:43Z 39 how-to-get-better-error-messages-for-a-associated-model 2008-11-13T23:38:49Z 1