rails 3 Validate presence based off boolean

Question

I have a model that has a boolean called draft

I want to validate presence of fields only if draft == false.

my model

if self.draft == false
  validates :name, :presence => true, :length => { :maximum => 45 }
  validates :description, :presence => true
  validates :blurb, :presence => true, :length => { :maximum => 175 }
  validates :category_id, :presence => true
  validates :location_id, :presence => true
  validates :goal, :presence => true
else
end

in my controller

def new
  @item.new(:draft => false) || @item.new(:draft => true)

def create
  if params[:commit] == "Create Item"
    @cause = Item.new(params[:item], :draft => false)
  elsif params[:commit] == "Save Changes"
    @cause = Item.new(params[:item], :draft => true)
  end

It completely ignores my if statement and validates anyways whether it's true or not upon clicking Save Changes.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

A conditional validation looks like below

validates :name, :presence => true, :length => { :maximum => 45 }, :if => :draft_is_false?

private
def draft_is_false?
   draft == false
end

Similarly, you can perform conditional validations on other fields and these can be grouped as well. Go through the Conditional Validations sections on Ruby on Rails guides.