Raised by {ActiveRecord::Base#save!}[rdoc-ref:Persistence#save!] and {ActiveRecord::Base.update_attribute!}[rdoc-ref:Persistence#update_attribute!] methods when a record failed to validate or cannot be saved due to any of the before_* callbacks throwing :abort. See ActiveRecord::Callbacks for further details.

class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
  before_save do
    throw :abort if price < 0
  end
end

Product.create! # => raises an ActiveRecord::RecordNotSaved
Show files where this class is defined (1 file)
Register or log in to add new notes.
June 3, 2009
9 thanks

ActiveRecord::RecordNotSaved can be triggered by accidental false return values in callbacks

You may have this exception raised if any of the defined callbacks such as ActiveRecord::Base#before_save or ActiveRecord::Base#before_create return false.

This can happen accidentally. For example:

class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  before_save :assign_default_foo

protected
  def assign_default_foo
    self.foo = false
  end
end

Since assign_default_foo leaves a false value on the stack, the model will not be saved. A way around this is to simply leave nil or an empty return instead:

class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  before_save :assign_default_foo

protected
  def assign_default_foo
    self.foo = false
    nil
  end
end