laravel-validation

Laravel validation setup that makes validation easier to use and to re-use.

Example

You wrap your validation logic in a class like the one below to clean op your controllers.

Validation class

namespace App\Validation;

use Gnoesiboe\Validation\Validator;
use Gnoesiboe\Validation\ValidationRuleSet;
use Gnoesiboe\Validation\ValidationRuleSetInterface;

/**
 * Class CreateUserValidator
 */
class RegisterAccountValidator extends Validator
{

    /**
     * @return ValidationRuleSetInterface
     */
    protected function configureValidationRuleSet()
    {
        $stepOne = new ValidationRuleSet(array(
            'username'              => 'required|min:5|max:60',
            'password'              => 'required|min:5',
            'password_confirmation' => 'required',
            'email'                 => 'required|email|max:255'
        ));

        // add another validator set that only needs to be applied
        // after the first validation set passed

        $stepTwo = new ValidationRuleSet(array(
            'username' => 'unique:account,username',
            'password' => 'confirmed',
            'email'    => 'unique:account,email',
        ));
        $stepOne->chain($stepTwo);

        return $stepOne;
    }

    /**
     * @param array $input
     *
     * @return array
     */
    protected function normalizeInput(array $input)
    {
        $defaults = array(
            'username'              => null,
            'pasword'               => null,
            'password_confirmation' => null,
            'email'                 => null,
        );

        return array_merge($defaults, $input);
    }
}

Multiple ValidationRuleSet's can be applied to chain validation. The second rule set is only executed when the first passed as a whole.

I make it a habit to normalize my input to make sure that all keys are availble and not leave it to the input that is put into the validator when the validate(array $input) is called. The normalized input is returned when the validate method is called. See below..

Controller

In your controller action (or closure, or command, or whatever you prefer) use the validator like this:

Route::get('/account/register', function () {
  $taintedInput = \Input::all();

  $validatedAndNormalizedInput = \App::make(RegisterAccountValidator::getClass())
    ->validate($taintedInput);
    
  // register the account
});

Exceptions

When the defined rule sets for the validator class do not validate, an exception is thrown of type ValidatorException. You can catch this wherever you want and retrieve the message bag from it to add the the session for returning the validation messages. I like putting it in the global.php file like this:

Example:

// in global.php..

App::error(function (\Gnoesiboe\Validation\ValidatorException $exception) {
    return Redirect::back()
        ->withInput($exception->getInput())
        ->withErrors($exception->getMessageBag());
});

ValidationRuleSet

With a ValidationRuleSet you can pretty much do whatever you do with your \Validator::make(). Its just more like a builder and they can be chained like:

<?php

$firstValidationRuleSet->chain($secondValidationRuleSet);