Merge pull request #2106 from bagerard/add_validation_to_doc

Add a documentation page for validation

docs/guide/defining-documents.rst

@@ -426,19 +426,6 @@ either a single field name, or a list or tuple of field names::
         first_name = StringField()
         last_name = StringField(unique_with='first_name')
 
-Skipping Document validation on save
-------------------------------------
-You can also skip the whole document validation process by setting
-``validate=False`` when calling the :meth:`~mongoengine.document.Document.save`
-method::
-
-    class Recipient(Document):
-        name = StringField()
-        email = EmailField()
-
-    recipient = Recipient(name='admin', email='root@localhost')
-    recipient.save()               # will raise a ValidationError while
-    recipient.save(validate=False) # won't
 
 Document collections
 ====================

docs/guide/document-instances.rst

@@ -41,35 +41,6 @@ already exist, then any changes will be updated atomically.  For example::
 .. seealso::
     :ref:`guide-atomic-updates`
 
-Pre save data validation and cleaning
--------------------------------------
-MongoEngine allows you to create custom cleaning rules for your documents when
-calling :meth:`~mongoengine.Document.save`.  By providing a custom
-:meth:`~mongoengine.Document.clean` method you can do any pre validation / data
-cleaning.
-
-This might be useful if you want to ensure a default value based on other
-document values for example::
-
-    class Essay(Document):
-        status = StringField(choices=('Published', 'Draft'), required=True)
-        pub_date = DateTimeField()
-
-        def clean(self):
-            """Ensures that only published essays have a `pub_date` and
-            automatically sets `pub_date` if essay is published and `pub_date`
-            is not set"""
-            if self.status == 'Draft' and self.pub_date is not None:
-                msg = 'Draft entries should not have a publication date.'
-                raise ValidationError(msg)
-            # Set the pub_date for published items if not set.
-            if self.status == 'Published' and self.pub_date is None:
-                self.pub_date = datetime.now()
-
-.. note::
-    Cleaning is only called if validation is turned on and when calling
-    :meth:`~mongoengine.Document.save`.
-
 Cascading Saves
 ---------------
 If your document contains :class:`~mongoengine.fields.ReferenceField` or

docs/guide/index.rst

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ User Guide
    defining-documents
    document-instances
    querying
+   validation
    gridfs
    signals
    text-indexes

docs/guide/validation.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+====================
+Document Validation
+====================
+
+By design, MongoEngine strictly validates the documents right before they are inserted in MongoDB
+and makes sure they are consistent with the fields defined in your models.
+
+MongoEngine makes the assumption that the documents that exists in the DB are compliant with the schema.
+This means that Mongoengine will not validate a document when an object is loaded from the DB into an instance
+of your model but this operation may fail under some circumstances (e.g. if there is a field in
+the document fetched from the database that is not defined in your model).
+
+
+Built-in validation
+===================
+
+Mongoengine provides different fields that encapsulate the corresponding validation
+out of the box. Validation runs when calling `.validate()` or `.save()`
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    from mongoengine import Document, EmailField
+
+    class User(Document):
+        email = EmailField()
+        age = IntField(min_value=0, max_value=99)
+
+    user = User(email='invalid@', age=24)
+    user.validate()     # raises ValidationError (Invalid email address: ['email'])
+    user.save()         # raises ValidationError (Invalid email address: ['email'])
+
+    user2 = User(email='john.doe@garbage.com', age=1000)
+    user2.save()        # raises ValidationError (Integer value is too large: ['age'])
+
+Custom validation
+=================
+
+The following feature can be used to customize the validation:
+
+* Field `validation` parameter
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    def not_john_doe(name):
+        if name == 'John Doe':
+            raise ValidationError("John Doe is not a valid name")
+
+    class Person(Document):
+        full_name = StringField(validation=not_john_doe)
+
+    Person(full_name='Billy Doe').save()
+    Person(full_name='John Doe').save()  # raises ValidationError (John Doe is not a valid name)
+
+
+* Document `clean` method
+
+This method is called as part of :meth:`~mongoengine.document.Document.save` and should be used to provide
+custom model validation and/or to modify some of the field values prior to validation.
+For instance, you could use it to automatically provide a value for a field, or to do validation
+that requires access to more than a single field.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    class Essay(Document):
+        status = StringField(choices=('Published', 'Draft'), required=True)
+        pub_date = DateTimeField()
+
+        def clean(self):
+            # Validate that only published essays have a `pub_date`
+            if self.status == 'Draft' and self.pub_date is not None:
+                raise ValidationError('Draft entries should not have a publication date.')
+            # Set the pub_date for published items if not set.
+            if self.status == 'Published' and self.pub_date is None:
+                self.pub_date = datetime.now()
+
+.. note::
+    Cleaning is only called if validation is turned on and when calling
+    :meth:`~mongoengine.Document.save`.
+
+* Adding custom Field classes
+
+We recommend as much as possible to use fields provided by MongoEngine. However, it is also possible
+to subclass a Field and encapsulate some validation by overriding the `validate` method
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    class AgeField(IntField):
+
+        def validate(self, value):
+            super(AgeField, self).validate(value)     # let IntField.validate run first
+            if value == 60:
+                self.error('60 is not allowed')
+
+    class Person(Document):
+        age = AgeField(min_value=0, max_value=99)
+
+    Person(age=20).save()   # passes
+    Person(age=1000).save() # raises ValidationError (Integer value is too large: ['age'])
+    Person(age=60).save()   # raises ValidationError (Person:None) (60 is not allowed: ['age'])
+
+
+.. note::
+
+   When overriding `validate`, use `self.error("your-custom-error")` instead of raising ValidationError explicitly,
+   it will provide a better context with the error message
+
+Skipping validation
+====================
+
+Although discouraged as it allows to violate fields constraints, if for some reason you need to disable
+the validation and cleaning of a document when you call :meth:`~mongoengine.document.Document.save`, you can use `.save(validate=False)`.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    class Person(Document):
+        age = IntField(max_value=100)
+
+    Person(age=1000).save()    # raises ValidationError (Integer value is too large)
+
+    Person(age=1000).save(validate=False)
+    person = Person.objects.first()
+    assert person.age == 1000
+

mongoengine/base/datastructures.py

@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ def filter(self, **kwargs):
         Filters the list by only including embedded documents with the
         given keyword arguments.
 
-        This method only supports simple comparison (e.g: .filter(name='John Doe'))
+        This method only supports simple comparison (e.g. .filter(name='John Doe'))
         and does not support operators like __gte, __lte, __icontains like queryset.filter does
 
         :param kwargs: The keyword arguments corresponding to the fields to

mongoengine/base/document.py

@@ -314,7 +314,8 @@ def __ne__(self, other):
 
     def clean(self):
         """
-        Hook for doing document level data cleaning before validation is run.
+        Hook for doing document level data cleaning (usually validation or assignment)
+        before validation is run.
 
         Any ValidationError raised by this method will not be associated with
         a particular field; it will have a special-case association with the

mongoengine/fields.py

@@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ def __init__(
         :param max_value: Validation rule for the maximum acceptable value.
         :param force_string: Store the value as a string (instead of a float).
          Be aware that this affects query sorting and operation like lte, gte (as string comparison is applied)
-         and some query operator won't work (e.g: inc, dec)
+         and some query operator won't work (e.g. inc, dec)
         :param precision: Number of decimal places to store.
         :param rounding: The rounding rule from the python decimal library:
 

tests/utils.py

@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ def requires_mongodb_gte_36(func):
     ran against MongoDB < v3.6.
 
     :param mongo_version_req: The mongodb version requirement (tuple(int, int))
-    :param oper: The operator to apply (e.g: operator.ge)
+    :param oper: The operator to apply (e.g. operator.ge)
     """
 
     def _inner(*args, **kwargs):