Validation

• Usage
• Validation rules
• Custom messages
• Validator plugins

The mako validator 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 =
[
	'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 =
[
	'*'        => ['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.

$validator = $this->validator->create($this->request->post(), $rules);

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

if($validator->isValid())
{
	// Save to database
}
else
{
	// Handle errors
}

You can also use the isInvalid method.

if($validator->isInvalid())
{
	// Handle errors
}
else
{
	// Save to database
}

Retrieving errors is done using the getErrors method.

$errors = $validator->getErrors();

Or by using the optional $errors parameter of the isValid and isInvalid methods.

if($validator->isValid($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',
	),
),

Validator plugins

You can create your own custom validator plugins. They must extend the mako\validator\plugins\ValidatorPlugin class and implement the mako\validator\plugins\ValidatorPluginInterface interface.

<?php

use mako\validator\plugins\ValidatorPlugin;
use mako\validator\plugins\ValidatorPluginInterface;

class IsFooValidator extends ValidatorPlugin implements ValidatorPluginInterface
{
	protected $ruleName = 'is_foo';

	public function validate($input)
	{
		return mb_strtolower($input) === 'foo';
	}
}

Prefix the $ruleName value with your package name and two colons (::) if your validator is a part of a package.

You can register the plugin with the validation factory, thus making it available to all future validator instances.

$this->validator->registerPlugin(new IsFooValidator);

You can also register it into an existing validator instance.

$validator->registerPlugin(new IsFooValidator);