Rails - how to validate 2-steps form?

Question

I have registration that consist of 2 steps. In the first one, the new user will set up his name, email and password. Then he clicks on the "Sign Up" button and is redirected on the page where is the second part of the registration form (approx 5-7 fields).

I have set up validation rules on all inputs (7-10 fields). The problem is, when I fill out the first part of the form and then I click on the Sign Up button, I see validation errors, because the fields from the second part of the form are not valid.

How to avoid this behavior?

Thank you

Answer 1

You can define a virtual attribute which will be used to determine which attributes to validate at which step, then use that attribute's value on with_options to validate the required fields at each step.

Something like following:

In your Model:

class MyModal < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessor :validate_step

  with_options if: :validate_step_one? do |o|
    o.validates :name, presence: true 
    o.validates :email, presence: true 
    o.validates :password, presence: true 
  end

  with_options if: :validate_step_two? do |o|
    ...
  end

  private:

  def validate_step_one?
    self.validate_step == 'validate_first_step'
  end

  def validate_step_two?
    self.validate_step == 'validate_second_step'
  end
end

Then in your Controller:

class MyRegistrationController < ApplicationController
  def show
    case step
      when :first_step
        user.validate_step = 'validate_first_step'
      when :second_step
        user.validate_step = 'validate_second_step'
    end
  end
end

In your controller, in the action where you build the object you need to assign either validate_first_step or validate_second_step based on the current step in your wizard.

Note that the values and names I've used are not very descriptive/meaningful, and you'd know much better how to name them :)