ActiveRecord/ActiveModel '#validate' alias for 'valid?'

It's unintuitive to call '#valid?' when you want to run validations but
don't care about the return value.

The alias in ActiveRecord isn't strictly necessary (the ActiveModel
alias is still in effect), but it clarifies.

3 files changed, 25 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/activerecord/CHANGELOG.md b/activerecord/CHANGELOG.md
index 42b7618fa7..916d24aa03 100644
--- a/activerecord/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/activerecord/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+*   Introduce `validate` as an alias for `valid?`.
+
+    This is more intuitive when you want to run validations but don't care about the return value.
+
+    *Henrik Nyh*
+
 *   Create indexes inline in CREATE TABLE for MySQL.
 
     This is important, because adding an index on a temporary table after it has been created
diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb
index 26dca415ff..9999624fcf 100644
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ module ActiveRecord
     # Runs all the validations within the specified context. Returns +true+ if
     # no errors are found, +false+ otherwise.
     #
+    # Aliased as validate.
+    #
     # If the argument is +false+ (default is +nil+), the context is set to <tt>:create</tt> if
     # <tt>new_record?</tt> is +true+, and to <tt>:update</tt> if it is not.
     #
@@ -71,6 +73,8 @@ module ActiveRecord
       errors.empty? && output
     end
 
+    alias_method :validate, :valid?
+
   protected
 
     def perform_validations(options={}) # :nodoc:
diff --git a/activerecord/test/cases/validations_test.rb b/activerecord/test/cases/validations_test.rb
index de618902aa..d80da06e27 100644
--- a/activerecord/test/cases/validations_test.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/cases/validations_test.rb
@@ -52,6 +52,21 @@ class ValidationsTest < ActiveRecord::TestCase
     assert r.save(:context => :special_case)
   end
 
+  def test_validate
+    r = WrongReply.new
+
+    r.validate
+    assert_empty r.errors[:author_name]
+
+    r.validate(:special_case)
+    assert_not_empty r.errors[:author_name]
+
+    r.author_name = "secret"
+
+    r.validate(:special_case)
+    assert_empty r.errors[:author_name]
+  end
+
   def test_invalid_record_exception
     assert_raise(ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid) { WrongReply.create! }
     assert_raise(ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid) { WrongReply.new.save! }