validates_each
is for validating multiple attributes. In your case you have one attribute, and you need to validate it in a custom way.
Do it like this:
class A < ActiveRecord::Base
validate :all_emails_are_valid
...
private
def all_emails_are_valid
unless self.email_list.nil?
self.email_list.each do |email|
if # email is valid -- however you want to do that
errors.add(:email_list, "#{email} is not valid")
end
end
end
end
end
Note that you could also make a custom validator for this or put the validation in a proc on the validate
call. See here.
Here's an example with a custom validator.
class A < ActiveRecord::Base
class ArrayOfEmailsValidator < ActiveModel::EachValidator
def validate_each(record, attribute, value)
return if value.nil?
value.each do |email|
if # email is valid -- however you want to do that
record.errors.add(attribute, "#{email} is not valid")
end
end
end
end
validates :email_list, :array_of_emails => true
...
end
Of course you can put the ArrayOfEmailsValidator
class in, i.e., lib/array_of_emails_validator.rb
and load it where you need it. This way you can share the validator across models or even projects.