Map validation library for Clojure and ClojureScript

Most other validation libraries (such as valip) assume validation is done per key, rather than on a map as a whole. This makes it difficult to write multi-key validations. Validation functions in Verily take an entire map, making multi-key (or single-key) validations easy.

Verily also provides a declarative, data-oriented API in addition to a conventional, function-oriented API. Using data to describe validations has benefits in certain use cases. For instance, you can share validation specifications between Clojure and ClojureScript.

Leiningen:

[jkkramer/verily "0.6.0"]

(ns example.core
  (:require [jkkramer.verily :as v]))

There are two ways to validate a map:

1. With a validation specification - i.e., data, which Verily turns into a validation function for you
2. With a validation function

To validate using a validation specification:

(def validations
  [[:required [:foo :bar :password]]
   [:equal [:password :confirm-password] "Passwords don't match, dummy"]
   [:min-length 8 :password]])

(v/validate {:foo "foo"
             :password "foobarbaz"
             :password-confirm "foobarba"}
            validations)
;; Returns:
({:keys (:bar), :msg "must not be blank"}
 {:keys [:password :confirm-password], :msg "Passwords don't match, dummy"})

To turn a validation specification into a function yourself:

(def validator (v/validations->fn validations))

You can use validation functions instead of data if you prefer. This makes it easier to write your own:

;; Custom validator
(defn validate-password [m]
  (when (#{"12345" "password" "hunter2"} (:password m))
    {:keys [:password] :msg "You can't use that password"}))

;; Combine several built-in validators and our own custom one
(def validator
  (v/combine
    (v/required [:foo :bar :password])
    (v/equal [:password :password-confirm])
    (v/min-length 8 :password)
    validate-password))

(validator {:foo "foo"
            :password "foobarbaz"
            :password-confirm "foobarba"})
;; Returns:
({:keys (:bar), :msg "must not be blank"}
 {:keys [:password :password-confirm], :msg "must be equal"})

The contract for a validation function is:

• Take a map as an argument
• If validation succeeded, return nil or an empty collection. If there was a problem, return a problem map or collection of problem maps. Each problem is a map with the following keys:
  • :keys (optional) - relevant map keys
  • :msg - description of the problem

All validation specifications accept a key or sequence of keys. The message is always optional.

Keys can be dotted keywords such as :foo.bar, which will be interpreted as a nested path (if the :foo.bar key does not exist in the top-level map). Strings such as "foo[bar]" are also allowed, and have the same semantics.

Unless :required is used, all validations allow the keys to be absent from the map, or have a nil value (or blank if a string-based type).

• :required <keys> [msg] - must not be absent, blank, or nil
• :contains <keys> [msg] - must not be absent, but can be blank or nil
• :not-blank <keys> [msg] - may be absent but not blank or nil
• :exact <value> <keys> [msg] - must be a particular value
• :equal <keys> [msg] - all keys must be equal
• :email <keys> [msg] - must be a valid email
• :url <keys> [msg] - must be a valid URL
• :web-url <keys> [msg] - must be a valid website URL (http or https)
• :link-url <keys> [msg] - must be a valid link URL (can be relative, http: or https: may be omitted)
• :matches <regex> <keys> [msg] - must match a regular expression
• :min-length <len> <keys> [msg] - must be a certain length (for strings or collections)
• :max-length <len> <keys> [msg] - must not exceed a certain length (for strings or collections)
• :complete <keys> [msg] - must be a collection with no blank or nil values
• :min-val <min> <keys> [msg] - must be at least a certain value
• :max-val <max> <keys> [msg] - must be at most a certain value
• :within <min> <max> <keys> [msg] - must be within a certain range (inclusive)
• :positive <keys> [msg] - must be a positive number
• :negative <keys> [msg] - must be a negative number
• :after <date> <keys> [msg] - must be after a certain date
• :before <date> <keys> [msg] - must be before a certain date
• :in <coll> <keys> [msg] - must be contained within a collection
• :every-in <coll> <keys> [msg] - each value must be within a collection (for values that are themselves collections)
• :us-zip <keys> [msg] - must be a valid US zip code
• :luhn <keys> [msg] - must be pass the Luhn check (e.g., for credit card numbers)
• Datatype validations: :string, :boolean, :integer, :float, :decimal, :date (plus aliases)
• Datatype collection validations: :strings, :booleans, :integers, :floats, :decimals, :dates (plus aliases)

All validation specifications have corresponding validator functions in the jkkramer.verily namespace, if you prefer to use those directly.

Copyright © 2012-2013 Justin Kramer

Distributed under the Eclipse Public License, the same as Clojure.