Flash message persists on reload

Question

I have simple actions that look like this:

def edit_password
end

def update_password
  if @user.update(user_params)
    redirect_to @user, notice: "Password was successfully changed"
  else
    flash.now[:notice] = "Password not changed"
    render :edit_password
  end
end

In my view I have:

<% if flash[:error] 
  <%=flash[:error] %>
<% end %>

The flash message is displayed correctly (when the password is not changed). But when I reload the page, the message persists. I believe that it should go away on a page refresh. What am I doing wrong? I have looked everywhere and this seems so simple, but I can't figure it out. Appreciate any help.

Answer 1

I was having the same issue and here is what I did to get around it. I created the following method in action_controller and call it as a before_action filter from my other controllers where needed:

def clear_flash_messages
  flash[:notice] = nil
  flash['danger'] = nil
  flash['success'] = nil
  flash[:warning] = nil
end

This will effectively clear any stale flash messages and would allow you to start new regardless of if you're simply reloading or redirecting.