rails custom validation not failing when it should

Question

This might not be the cleanest code yet, still quite new to Ruby...

I have the following spam check method in my message.rb model:

validate :no_spam?, :if => "sender_user_id != nil"

private

def no_spam?
  #first easy spam detection, if the (hidden by css) company field is filled, it is spam for sure
  if !company.blank?
    errors.add(:body, I18n.t(:No_spam_allowed))
    return false
  end

  #Mollom advanced spam detection
  m = Mollom.new(:private_key => 'xxx',
                 :public_key => 'xxx')

  #check content in case it is a first submit of the form
  if captcha_session_id.blank?
    content = m.check_content(:post_body => body,
                              :author_name => sender_name,
                              :author_mail => sender_email,
                              :author_ip => sender_ip)
  else
    #check captcha if the form was resumbitted after an unsure result
    logger.debug "DEBUG: GOING TO CHECK CAPTCHA"
    result = m.valid_captcha?(:session_id => captcha_session_id,
                              :solution => captcha_solution.chomp)
    if result
      logger.debug "DEBUG: TRUE -> GOOD CAPTCHA"
      return true
    else
      logger.debug "DEBUG: FALSE -> BAD CAPTCHA"
      return false
    end
  end

  #returning the right values and error messages for different content check outcomes
  logger.debug "DEBUG: I'M CONTINUING THE METHOD EXECUTION"
  if content.spam?
    logger.debug "DEBUG: SPAM DETECTED"
    errors.add(:body, I18n.t(:No_spam_allowed))
    return false
  elsif content.unsure?
    logger.debug "DEBUG: MESSAGE UNSURE - FAIL FORM BUT SHOW CAPTCHA"
    errors.add(:captcha_solution, I18n.t(:Type_the_characters_you_see_in_the_picture_below))
    self.captcha_image_url = m.image_captcha(:session_id => content.session_id)["url"]
    self.captcha_session_id = content.session_id
    return false
  else
    logger.debug "DEBUG: MESSAGE OK!"
    return true
  end
end

development.log

Processing MessagesController#create (for 127.0.0.1 at 2011-08-12 12:01:24) [POST]
  Parameters: {"commit"=>"Verzend", "action"=>"create", "authenticity_token"=>"xxxxxxxxxxx", "locale"=>"nl", "controller"=>"messages", "message"=>{"sender_email"=>"[FILTERED]", "company"=>"", "body"=>"unsure", "sender_phone"=>"xxxx", "sender_name"=>"Admin ImmoNatie"}}
  Message Columns (6.0ms)   SHOW FIELDS FROM `messages`
  User Columns (10.0ms)   SHOW FIELDS FROM `users`
  User Load (7.0ms)   SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE (`users`.`id` = '1') AND (users.deleted_at IS NULL ) LIMIT 1
  SQL (0.0ms)   BEGIN
  User Update (0.0ms)   UPDATE `users` SET `updated_at` = '2011-08-12 10:01:25', `perishable_token` = 'xxxxxxxxxxx', `last_request_at` = '2011-08-12 10:01:25' WHERE `id` = 1
  SQL (3.0ms)   COMMIT
  SQL (0.0ms)   BEGIN
DEBUG: I'M CONTINUING THE METHOD EXECUTION
DEBUG: MESSAGE UNSURE - FAIL FORM BUT SHOW CAPTCHA
  SQL (0.0ms)   ROLLBACK
Rendering template within layouts/application
Rendering messages/new
Rendered messages/_form (8.0ms)
Rendered layouts/_google_analytics (0.0ms)
Rendered layouts/_login (3.0ms)
Rendered layouts/_navigation (6.0ms)
Rendered layouts/_header (12.0ms)
Rendered about_us/_ten_reasons_9_body (0.0ms)
  NewsletterEmail Columns (5.0ms)   SHOW FIELDS FROM `newsletter_emails`
Rendered layouts/_footer (41.0ms)
Completed in 1907ms (View: 70, DB: 40) | 200 OK [http://infinitize.dynalias.com/contact]
tize.dynalias.com/contact]
  SQL (0.0ms)   SET SQL_AUTO_IS_NULL=0
  Property Columns (10.0ms)   SHOW FIELDS FROM `properties`


Processing MessagesController#create (for 127.0.0.1 at 2011-08-12 12:01:32) [POST]
  Parameters: {"commit"=>"Verzend", "action"=>"create", "authenticity_token"=>"xxxxxxxxxxx", "locale"=>"nl", "controller"=>"messages", "message"=>{"sender_email"=>"[FILTERED]", "company"=>"", "body"=>"unsure", "captcha_solution"=>"", "sender_phone"=>"xx", "captcha_session_id"=>"xxxxxxxxxxx", "sender_name"=>"Admin ImmoNatie"}}
  Message Columns (5.0ms)   SHOW FIELDS FROM `messages`
  User Columns (10.0ms)   SHOW FIELDS FROM `users`
  User Load (0.0ms)   SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE (`users`.`id` = '1') AND (users.deleted_at IS NULL ) LIMIT 1
  SQL (0.0ms)   BEGIN
  User Update (0.0ms)   UPDATE `users` SET `updated_at` = '2011-08-12 10:01:32', `perishable_token` = 'xxxxxxxxxxx', `last_request_at` = '2011-08-12 10:01:32' WHERE `id` = 1
  SQL (4.0ms)   COMMIT
  SQL (0.0ms)   BEGIN
DEBUG: GOING TO CHECK CAPTCHA
DEBUG: FALSE -> BAD CAPTCHA
  Message Create (0.0ms)   INSERT INTO `messages` (`sender_email`, `receiver_user_id`, `receiver_email`, `created_at`, `body`, `opened_by_owner`, `updated_at`, `receiver_name`, `opened_by_sender`, `sender_ip`, `message_thread_id`, `sender_user_id`, `sender_name`) VALUES('admin@immonatie.be', 1, 'test@immonatie.be', '2011-08-12 10:01:33', 'unsure', NULL, '2011-08-12 10:01:33', 'ImmoNatie', NULL, '127.0.0.1', NULL, 1, 'Admin ImmoNatie')
  MessageThread Columns (5.0ms)   SHOW FIELDS FROM `message_threads`
  MessageThread Create (1.0ms)   INSERT INTO `message_threads` (`last_message_opened_by_sender_id`, `answered`, `initial_sender_user_id`, `created_at`, `initial_sender_email`, `starred`, `updated_at`, `last_message_opened_by_owner_id`, `type_id`, `owner_id`, `property_id`, `first_message_id`, `initial_sender_name`, `initial_sender_phone`, `last_message_id`, `last_message_added_at`) VALUES(213, NULL, 1, '2011-08-12 10:01:33', 'admin@immonatie.be', 0, '2011-08-12 10:01:33', 0, 174, 1, NULL, 213, 'Admin ImmoNatie', 'xx', 213, '2011-08-12 10:01:33')
  Message Update (0.0ms)   UPDATE `messages` SET `updated_at` = '2011-08-12 10:01:33', `message_thread_id` = 101, `sender_name` = 'Admin ImmoNatie', `created_at` = '2011-08-12 10:01:33', `sender_email` = 'admin@immonatie.be', `sender_ip` = '127.0.0.1', `sender_user_id` = 1, `receiver_name` = 'ImmoNatie', `receiver_email` = 'test@immonatie.be', `body` = 'unsure', `receiver_user_id` = 1 WHERE `id` = 213
Sent mail to test@immonatie.be

Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:01:33 +0200
From: Notifications <no-reply@immonatie.be>
To: test@immonatie.be
Subject: Nieuw contact bericht
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8

Naam: xxxx<br />
E-mail: xxxx<br />
Telefoon: xxxx<br />
<br />
Bericht:<br />
unsure
  SQL (3.0ms)   COMMIT

In the development.log you see that I first submit the form (first create action) with 'unsure' in the body to invoke an unsure result from Mollom (this site is in development mode).

The validation fails for this first create action as expected.

But when I resubmit the form now with an empty captcha verification code, the validation method returns false, but the validation does not, since the save is continued and COMMITTED in the end.

Why does this validation not fail and break (rollback) the create action?

Thanks, Michael

Answer 1

Found the problem. Returning false to the validation was not enough. I needed to add an error: errors.add(:body, "error message"). This error together with return false did the job.