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Validation



The mako validator provides a simple and consistent way of validating user input.


Usage

Basics

First you'll need to define a set of rules that you want to validate your input against.

$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 non-empty. That the username is between 4 and 20 characters long, and that the email field contains a valid email address.

Note that most of the included validation rules will skip validation if the field is empty. The exceptions are required, one_time_token and token.

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

$postData = $this->request->getPost();

$validator = $this->validator->create($postData->all(), $rules);

Now all that is left is to check if the input data is valid using either the isValid method or the isInvalid method.

if($validator->isValid())
{
	// Do something
}
else
{
	// Display errors
}

Retrieving error messages is done using the getErrors method.

$errors = $validator->getErrors();

You can also use the optional $errors parameter of the isValid and isInvalid methods.

if($validator->isValid($errors))
{
	// Do something
}
else
{
	// Display errors
}

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

Nested arrays

The validator also supports nested arrays. You can assign validation rule sets to nested fields using the "dot notation" syntax.

$rules =
[
	'user.email' => ['required', 'email'],
];

You can also apply rule sets to multiple keys using wildcards.

$rules =
[
	'users.*.email' => ['email'],
];

Note that wildcard rules will only be added if the input field(s) actually exists.

Conditional rules sets

You can add rule sets to your validator instance if a certain condition is met using either the addRules or addRulesIf methods.

$validator->addRulesIf('state', ['required', 'valid_us_state'], function() use ($postData)
{
	return $postData->get('country') === 'United States of America';
});

You can also pass a boolean value instead of a closure. Rules added using either of the methods will be merged with any pre-existing rules assigned to the field.

Rule builder

The validator class also comes with a handy helper method that makes it easier to build rule sets that have rules with dynamic parameters. The first parameter of the method is the name of the validation rule and any subsequent parameters are treated as rule parameters.

$rules =
[
	'category' => ['required', Validator::rule('in', $this->getCategoryIds())],
];

// The example above produces the same result as the following code

$rules =
[
	'category' => ['required', 'in([' . implode(',', $this->getCategoryIds()) . '])'],
];

Validation rules

The following validation rules are included with Mako:

Base rules

Name Description
after Checks that the field value is a valid date after the provided date (after("Y-m-d","2012-09-25")).
alpha Checks that the field value only contains valid alpha characters.
alpha_dash Checks that the field value only contains valid alphanumeric, dash and underscore characters.
alpha_dash_unicode Checks that the field value only contains valid alphanumeric unicode, dash and underscore characters.
alpha_unicode Checks that the field value only contains valid alpha unicode characters.
alphanumeric Checks that the field value only contains valid alphanumeric characters.
alphanumeric_unicode Checks that the field value only contains valid alphanumeric unicode characters.
before Checks that the field value is a valid date before the provided date (before("Y-m-d","2012-09-25")).
between Checks that the field value is between x and y (between(5,10)).
date Checks that the field value is a valid date (date("Y-m-d")).
different Checks that the field value is different from the value of another field (different("old_password")).
email Checks that the field value is a valid email address (uses PHP's filter_var function).
email_domain Checks that the field value contains a valid MX record.
exact_length Checks that the field value is of the right length (exact_length(20)).
float Checks that the field value is a float.
greater_than Checks that the field value is greater than x (greater_than(5)).
greater_than_or_equal_to Checks that the field value is greater than or equal to x (greater_than_or_equal_to(5)).
hex Checks that the field value is valid HEX.
in Checks that the field value contains one of the given values (in(["foo","bar","baz"])).
integer Checks that the field value is a integer.
ip Checks that the field value is an IP address (uses PHP's filter_var function).
less_than Checks that the field value is less than x (less_than(5)).
less_than_or_equal_to Checks that the field value is less than or equal to x (less_than_or_equal_to(5)).
match Checks that the field value matches the value of another field (match("password_confirmation")).
max_length Checks that the field value is short enough (max_length(20)).
min_length Checks that the field value is long enough (min_length(10)).
natural Checks that the field value is a natural.
natural_non_zero Checks that the field value is a natural non zero.
not_in Checks that the field value does not contain one of the given values (not_in(["foo","bar","baz"])).
regex Checks that the field value matches a regex pattern (regex("/[a-z]+/i")).
required Checks that the field isn't empty.
url Checks that the field value is a valid URL (uses PHP's filter_var function).
uuid Checks that the field value matches a valid uuid.

Database rules

Name Description
exists Checks that the field value exist in the database (exists("users","email")).
unique Checks that the field value doesn't exist in the database (unique("users","email")).

File rules

Name Description
is_uploaded Checks that the file is a successful upload.
max_filesize Checks that the file is smaller or equal in size to the provided limit (max_filesize("1MiB") The accepted size units are KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB).
mimetype Checks that the file is of the specified mimetype(s) (mimetype("image/png") or mimetype(["image/png", "image/jpeg"])).

The max_filesize and mimetype expect SplFileInfo objects. The is_uploaded rule expects an instance of mako\http\request\UploadedFile (it extends SplFileInfo).

Session rules

Name Description
one_time_token Checks that the field value matches a valid session one time token.
token Checks that the field value matches a valid session token.

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' =>
[
	'messages' =>
	[
		'username' =>
		[
			'required' => 'You need a username!',
		],
	],
],

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

'overrides' =>
[
	'fieldnames' =>
	[
		'email' => 'email address',
	],
],

Custom rules

You can, of course, create your own custom validator rules. All rules must implement the RuleInterface interface.

<?php

use mako\validator\rules\RuleInterface;

/**
 * Is foo validation rule.
 */
class IsFooRule implements RuleInterface
{
	/**
	 * {@inheritdoc}
	 */
	public function validateWhenEmpty(): bool
	{
		return false;
	}

	/**
	 * {@inheritdoc}
	 */
	public function validate($value, array $input): bool
	{
		return mb_strtolower($value) === 'foo';
	}

	/**
	 * {@inheritdoc}
	 */
	public function getErrorMessage(string $field): string
	{
		return sprintf('The value of the %1$s field must be "foo".', $field);
	}
}

If you validation rule uses parameters then it will have to implement the WithParametersInterface interface and if you want it to return error messages from a language file then you'll have to implement the I18nAwareInterface interface.

Note that there are reusable traits that implement both interfaces so that you don't have to write the code yourself.

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

$this->validator->extend('is_foo', IsFooRule::class);

You can also register it into an existing validator instance.

$validator->extend('is_foo', IsFooRule::class);

Prefix the rule name with your package name and two colons (::) if your validator is a part of a package to avoid naming collisions.