Rails validation error messages, customizing the attribute name

Question

If a model has an attribute named "unit" for example, but in your views you refer to this attribute as "unit price", but when you do validation, error messages default to "unit", how do I modify this to say "unit price"?

Answer 1

Use localization to set the "English" name of your attribute. You can set both the singular and plural names:

en:
  activerecord:
    attributes:
      unit:
        one:   Unit price
        other: Unit prices

Answer 2

Hi fivetwentysix

I'm not sure how you can change the column name , But following is a working workaround

in your model create a virtual attribute called unit_price

something like this

attr_accessor :unit_price

validates_presence_of :unit_price, :message => "This is a custom validation message"

def before_validation
   self.unit_price = self.unit
end

cheers

sameera