validations failing as blank when fields not blank - validation

Question

I am runnning ruby 1.9.3 and rails 4.1.4
trying the following validations
in the models\profile.rb
attr_accessor :password
validates :name, :presence => true, :uniqueness => true, :length => { :in => 3..20 }
validates :password, :confirmation => true #password_confirmation attr
validates_length_of :password, :in => 6..20, :on => :create
before_save :encrypt_password
in view profiles\new.html.erb
from the form
<p>
<%= f.label :name %><br />
<%= f.text_field :name %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :email %><br />
<%= f.text_field :email %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :password %><br />
<%= f.password_field :password %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :password_confirmation %><br />
<%= f.password_field :password_confirmation %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :interests %><br />
<%= f.text_area :interests %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :zip %><br />
<%= f.text_field :zip %>
</p>
<p>
<%= f.label :country %><br />
<%= f.country_select :country, ["United Kingdom"] %> </p>
using strong parameters controllers\profile_controller,rb
class ProfilesController < ApplicationController
def new
#profile = Profile.new
end
def create
#profile = Profile.new(params[profile_params])
if #profile.save
flash[:notice] = "You signed up successfully"
flash[:color]= "valid"
else
flash[:notice] = "Form is invalid"
flash[:color]= "invalid"
end
render "new"
end
private
## Strong Parameters
def profile_params
params.require(:profile).permit(:name, :email, :password, :interests,:zip)
end
end
validations always fail saying fields are blank. By causing an exception the report shows model profile with its fields populated. It is as if the data is simply not accessible so I suspect I'm misuing strong parameters sonehow.
Any opinions welcomed.

Answer 1

The profile_params function is going to return a hash for you with the data directly.
What that basically does is it filters the params hash for the 'profile' key's value for the keys named as the parameters of permit(...)
So the way to fix is to write
#profile = Profile.new(profile_params)
instead of
#profile = Profile.new(params[profile_params])
With strong parameters you almost never interact with the params array directly from controller actions (such as create). The private strong parameter methods will handle that for you and by that, only safe, filtered data will be given to your controller actions.