Validation

• Usage
• Validation rules
• Custom messages
• Creating custom rules

The validation class provides a simple and consistent way of validating user input.

Usage

First you need to define a set of rules you want to use to validate the input.

$rules = array
(
	'username' => 'required|min_length:4|max_length:20',
	'password' => 'required',
	'email'    => 'required|email',
);

The rules defined above will make sure that the username, password and email fields are filled in. That the username is between 4 and 20 characters long, and that the email field contains a valid email address.

If all of your fields have one or more rule in common, then you can use the * shortcut.

$rules = array
(
	'*'        => 'required',
	'username' => 'min_length:4|max_length:20',
	'email'    => 'email',
);

Only non-empty fields or fields marked as required are validated.

Next you'll need to create a validation object. The first parameter is the input data you want to validate and the second is the validation rules.

$validation = new Validate($_POST, $rules);

Now you need to check if the input data is valid using the successful method.

if($validation->successful())
{
	// Save to database
}
else
{
	// Handle error
}

You can also use the failed method.

if($validation->failed())
{
	// Handle error
}
else
{
	// Save to database
}

Retrieving errors is done using the errors method.

$errors = $validation->errors();

Or by using the optional $errors parameter of the successful and failed methods.

if($validation->successful($errors))
{
	// Save to database
}
else
{
	var_dump($errors);
}

An empty array will be returned if there are no errors.

Validation rules

The following validation rules are included with Mako:

Custom messages

All error messages are defined in the app/i18n/*/strings/validate.php language file.

Adding custom field specific error messages can be done using the overrides.messages array:

'overrides' => array
(
	'messages' => array
	(
		'username' => array
		(
			'required' => 'You need a username!',
		),
	),
),

You can also add custom field name translations using the overrides.fieldnames array:

'overrides' => array
(
	'fieldnames' => array
	(
		'email' => 'email address',
	),
),

Creating custom rules

You can also register your own custom validation rules using the registerValidator method.

Validate::registerValidator('myrule', function($input, array $parameters)
{
	return $input === 'foo';
});

Rules defined in a package should be prefixed with the package name followed by two colons.

Validate::registerValidator('mypackage::myrule', function($input, array $parameters)
{
	return $input === 'foo';
});