rails custom validation not failing when it should - ruby-on-rails

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.