Server side Rails model validation in a React form - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am trying to validate User inputs on server side in a Rails Application with React as view. Basically I make axios calls to the Rails API like this:
const Script = props => {
const [script, setScript] = useState({})
const [scene, setScene] = useState({})
const [loaded, setLoaded] = useState(false)
useEffect(() => {
const scriptID = props.match.params.id
const url = `/api/v1/scripts/${scriptID}`
axios.get(url)
.then( resp => {
setScript(resp.data)
setLoaded(true)
})
.catch(resp => console.log(resp))
}, [])
const handleChange = (e) => {
e.preventDefault()
setScene(Object.assign({}, scene, {[e.target.name]: e.target.value}))
}
const handleSubmit = (e) => {
e.preventDefault()
const csrfToken = document.querySelector('[name=csrf-token]').content
axios.defaults.headers.common['X-CSRF-TOKEN'] = csrfToken
const script_id = script.data.id
axios.post('/api/v1/scenes', {scene, script_id})
.then(resp => {
const included = [...script.included, resp.data.data]
setScript({...script, included})
})
.catch(err => {
console.log(err.response.data.error)
})
.finally(() => {
setScene({name: '', description: ''})
})
}
All data gets passed into a react component with a form.
return (
<div className="wrapper">
{
loaded &&
<Fragment>
.
.
.
<SceneForm
handleChange={handleChange}
handleSubmit={handleSubmit}
attributes={script.data.attributes}
scene={scene}
/>
</Fragment>
}
</div>
)
In this form I have a name field and the corresponding name in Rails has a validation uniqueness: true. everything works fine if I enter a valid (unique) name.
I tried to implement a validation but I am not happy with the outcome. (It works in general: my no_errors? method does what is is supposed to do and I get a 403 status) This is the controller part:
def create
scene = script.scenes.new(scene_params)
if no_error?(scene)
if scene.save
render json: SceneSerializer.new(scene).serialized_json
else
render json: { error: scene.errors.messages }, status: 422
# render json: { error: scene.errors.messages[:name] }, status: 423
end
else
render json: { error: "name must be unique" }, status: 403
end
end
.
.
.
private
def no_error?(scene)
Scene.where(name: scene.name, script_id: scene.script_id).empty?
end
If I enter an existing name I get a console.log like this:
screenshot
Here is my concern: I am not happy with my approach of error handling in general. I do not want to get the 403 message logged to the console (I do want to avoid this message in the first place).
My idea is to take the "simple form" approach: Make the border of my field red and post an error message under the field, without any console output...
And on a side note: Is 403 the correct status? I was thinking about 422 but wasn't sure...
Thank you for your ideas in advance!

Answer 1

403 is the wrong status code. What you need is to return a 422 (unprocessable entity). 403 is more about policy and what you are authorized to do.
Then when you deal with http request it's a standard to have a request and status code printed in browser console. Not sur to get your issue here.
If it's about to display the error you could just have a function that colorize (or whatever fireworks you want) your input if the status code response is a 422.