Setting default message on #errors_for in Rails' FormBuilder

I wanted to change the default message that Rails’ FormBuilder provides. “X errors prohibited this Y from being created” is just a little stiff. I dig something a little more conversational; something like “Oh uh…”. Being a programmer, I’m lazy. I don’t want to set this on every form in my app. This calls for a monkey patch. Add the below code into a file, say something like config/initializers/form_builder.rb:

module ActionView
  module Helpers
    class FormBuilder

      def errors
        if error_messages.present?
          error_messages(:message => "", :header_message => "Oh uh… Something's up.")
        end
      end

    end
  end
end

To use this new method just add it into your form like so:

- form_for(@page) do |f|
  = f.errors
  = f.text_field :page
  = f.submit "Create Page"
  == -or-
  = link_to "Cancel", pages_path

This gives us something a little more friendly:

Oh uh… Something’s up.

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