validates_email_format_of Gem and Rails Plugin¶ ↑

Validate e-mail addresses against RFC 2822 and RFC 3696.

Installation¶ ↑

Installing as a gem:

gem install validates_email_format_of

Or in your Gemfile:

gem 'validates_email_format_of'

Usage¶ ↑

# Rails
# I18n locales are loaded automatically.
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates_email_format_of :email, :message => 'is not looking good'
  # OR
  validates :email, :email_format => { :message => 'is not looking good' }
end

# Now you can test your model using RSpec:
require "validates_email_format_of/rspec_matcher"
describe Person do
  it { should validate_email_format_of(:email).with_message('is not looking good') }
end

# If you're not using Rails (which really means, if you're not using ActiveModel::Validations)
ValidatesEmailFormatOf::load_i18n_locales # Optional, if you want error messages to be in your language
I18n.locale = :pl # If, for example, you want Polish error messages.
ValidatesEmailFormatOf::validate_email_format("[email protected]") # => nil
ValidatesEmailFormatOf::validate_email_format("invalid_because_there_is_no_at_symbol") # => ["does not appear to be a valid e-mail address"]

Options¶ ↑

:message
   String. A custom error message when the email format is invalid (default is: "does not appear to be a valid e-mail address")
:check_mx
   Boolean. Check domain for a valid MX record (default is false)
:mx_message
   String. A custom error message when the domain does not match a valid MX record (default is: "is not routable").  Ignored unless :check_mx option is true.
:local_length
  Maximum number of characters allowed in the local part (everything before the '@') (default is 64)
:domain_length
  Maximum number of characters allowed in the domain part (everything after the '@') (default is 255)
:generate_message
  Boolean. Return the I18n key of the error message instead of the error message itself (default is false)
:with
  Specify a custom Regex as the valid email format.
:on, :if, :unless, :allow_nil, :allow_blank, :strict
   Standard ActiveModel validation options.  These work in the ActiveModel/ActiveRecord/Rails syntax only.
   See http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveModel/Validations/ClassMethods.html#method-i-validates for details.

Testing¶ ↑

To execute the unit tests run rspec.

Tested in Ruby 1.8.7, 1.9.2, 1.9.3, 2.0.0, 2.1.2, JRuby and REE 1.8.7.

Contributing¶ ↑

If you think we’re letting some rules about valid email formats slip through the cracks, don’t just update the Regex. Instead, add a failing test, and demonstrate that the described email address should be treated differently. A link to an appropriate RFC is the best way to do this. Then change the gem code to make the test pass.

describe "i_think_this_is_not_a_v@lid_email_addre.ss" do
  # According to http://..., this email address IS NOT valid.
  it { should have_errors_on_email.because("does not appear to be valid") }
end
describe "i_think_this_is_a_v@lid_email_addre.ss" do
  # According to http://..., this email address IS valid.
  it { should_not have_errors_on_email }
end

Yes, our Rspec syntax is that simple!

Homepage¶ ↑

• github.com/validates-email-format-of/validates_email_format_of

Credits¶ ↑

Written by Alex Dunae (dunae.ca), 2006-11.

Many thanks to the plugin’s recent contributors: github.com/alexdunae/validates_email_format_of/contributors

Thanks to Francis Hwang (fhwang.net/) at Diversion Media for creating the 1.1 update.

Thanks to Travis Sinnott for creating the 1.3 update.

Thanks to Denis Ahearn at Riverock Technologies (www.riverocktech.com/) for creating the 1.4 update.

Thanks to George Anderson (github.com/george) and ‘history’ (github.com/history) for creating the 1.4.1 update.

Thanks to Isaac Betesh (github.com/betesh) for converting tests to Rspec and refactoring for version 1.6.0.