ruby on rails - Custom message with validates presence of not working -

my user model contains following:

validates :password_digest, :presence => true, :message => "the password has 6 or     more characters long"    def password=(password)   self.password_digest = bcrypt::password.create(password) if password.length >= 6 end 

the issue message in validates isn't working. unknown validator: 'messagevalidator' error. assumed way presence validation worked check if password_digest nil, had password had length less 6. want solution elegant, attempted. have solved 1 way, appreciate understanding why i'm trying isn't working, , there way make work.

what got work was:

validate |user|   user.errors['password'] = "can't less 6 characters" if user.password_digest.nil? end 

this due how validates method works. assumes you're looking messagevalidator when specify :message key in hash passed validates.

this can solved reconstructing query follows:

validates :password_digest, :presence => { :message => "the password has 6 or more characters long" }