title: Rails 3: how to update only 1 attribute?
body: <p>How can I update only 1 attribute in the database WITHOUT having to insert the validations?</p>
  
  <p>e.g:</p>
  
  <p>I have password as presence = true. When I want to edit the database, I have to pass the password. I want to edit 1 field without passing the password.</p>
  
  <p>I've tried update_attribute, merge, but none works.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks.
  Donald</p>
  
  <p>Edit: Even with the validation, which works on the console, it still puts the password there.</p>
  
  <p>Here's the validation:</p>
  
  <pre><code> def password_validation_required?
        encrypted_password.blank? || !@password.blank?
      end
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And when I submit the form without the password field, I get this on the console:
  (it puts blank on the encrypted_password field)</p>
  
  <pre><code> SQL (0.3ms)  UPDATE "wsps" SET "about" = 'gfg', "encrypted_password" = 'fcf538f9a588befec4ee2567754a42f05b3cd75f24919d49530426786491c3e1', "updated_at" = '2010-11-30 23:56:45.594168' WHERE ("wsps"."id" = 4)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Maybe my controller isn't correct? i have this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>if @wsp.update_attributes(params[:wsp])
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My form:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;%= form_for(@wsp, :html =&gt; { :multipart =&gt; true } ) do |f| %&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>thanks</p>