validates_im

Instant messenger account validators for ActiveModel / Rails

validates_im is a small gem that gives you a collection of ActiveModel::EachValidators for common instant-messaging and gaming-service account names. Drop one onto an attribute and your model will reject malformed account IDs at validation time.

Supported services

Modern services:

Validator	DSL key	Description
`DiscordValidator`	`discord:`	Discord usernames (post-2023 format, no discriminator)
`TelegramValidator`	`telegram:`	Telegram usernames (`@handle` style; leading `@` is stripped automatically)
`MatrixValidator`	`matrix:`	Matrix IDs of the form `@localpart:domain.tld` per the Matrix specification
`SignalValidator`	`signal:`	Signal usernames (`base.NN` with a 2+ digit discriminator)
`SteamValidator`	`steam:`	Steam account IDs
`XboxLiveValidator`	`xbox_live:`	Xbox Live gamertags

Legacy services (kept for backwards compatibility; these services are largely defunct):

Validator	DSL key	Description
`AimValidator`	`aim:`	AOL Instant Messenger screen names
`YahooImValidator`	`yahoo_im:`	Yahoo! Messenger screen names
`SkypeValidator`	`skype:`	Skype account names

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem "validates_im"

And then execute:

bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

gem install validates_im

Requires Ruby 3.1+ and ActiveModel 6.1+. The gem works in any project that uses ActiveModel validations — Rails is not required, just ActiveModel.

Usage

The validators are standard EachValidators. Use them via validates:

class Account < ApplicationRecord
  validates :discord_handle,  discord:   true, allow_blank: true
  validates :telegram_handle, telegram:  true, allow_blank: true
  validates :matrix_id,       matrix:    true, allow_blank: true
  validates :signal_username, signal:    true, allow_blank: true
  validates :steam_id,        steam:     true, allow_blank: true
  validates :xbox_gamertag,   xbox_live: true, allow_blank: true
end

The DSL key for a validator is its class name with the Validator suffix stripped and underscored — so XboxLiveValidator becomes xbox_live:.

Each validator supports the usual :allow_nil, :allow_blank, and :message options. Error messages are localized via Rails i18n; the localization keys are documented in each validator's class comment.

Writing your own validator

AccountNameValidator provides a small DSL for declarative account-name validators. To add a hypothetical "Talkalot" service:

class TalkalotValidator < AccountNameValidator
  min_length 5
  max_length 64
  valid_chars "A-Za-z0-9_"
  first_char  "A-Za-z"

  add_validation(:no_double_underscore) { |value| !value.include?("__") }
end

For services whose IDs don't fit the simple "single account-name string" mould (like Matrix's full @user:server.tld syntax), subclass ActiveModel::EachValidator directly — see MatrixValidator for an example.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.