Here’s a method that will allow you to call to_xml on an ActiveRecord::Errors object. We’re using this to pass errors between web apps via a web service api.

class ActiveRecord::Errors
  def to_xml(options = {})
    options[:indent] ||= 2
    options.reverse_merge!({ :builder =>
      Builder::XmlMarkup.new(:indent =>
        options[:indent]), :root => "errors" })
    options[:builder].instruct! unless options.delete(:skip_instruct)

    options[:builder].__send__(options[:root].to_s.dasherize) do |xml|
      @errors.each do |key, value|
        xml.__send__(key.to_s.dasherize) do |xm|
          for message in value
            xm.message(message)
          end
        end
      end
    end

  end
end

Using the default rails field_error_proc may lead to some layout headaches--your form looks perfect until, uh-oh, someone entered an invalid email address and Rails adds a fieldWithError-styled div that wraps around the problem field.

While this works in many cases, some pixel-perfect layouts may not be able to tolerate the 2-pixel padding around the text_field caused by the red border. An alternative is to change the background color of the offending field.

Include the following code in environment.rb (or use a "require" like I do):

ActionView::Base.field_error_proc = Proc.new do |html_tag, instance|
  error_style = "background-color: #ffff80"
  if html_tag =~ /<(input|textarea|select)[^>]+style=/
    style_attribute = html_tag =~ /style=['"]/
    html_tag.insert(style_attribute + 7, "#{error_style}; ")
  elsif html_tag =~ /<(input|textarea|select)/
    first_whitespace = html_tag =~ /\s/
    html_tag[first_whitespace] = " style='#{error_style}' "
  end
  html_tag
end

See my blog.inquirylabs.com for more Rails stuff.