Validation

Introduction

Solital has ways to validate data from $_POST and $_FILES requests. This way, you can validate emails, names, passwords, among others, in addition to applying filters to this data.

Solital uses the validate method. This method makes use of the wixel/gump component.

Getting Started

Rules

Rules are applied to data coming from $_POST and $_FILES requests. Firstly, you need to have created a controller inside the app/Components/Controller/ folder. After that, you must use the input() helper together with the validate() method.

class StoreController
{
    public function index()
    {
        $data_rules = [
            'username' => 'required|alpha_numeric|max_len,100|min_len,6',
            'password' => 'required|max_len,100|min_len,6',
            'email'    => 'required|valid_email'
        ];

        $values = input()->validate($data_rules);
        var_dump($values);
    }
}

In the previous example, if the request data is validated according to the defined rules, it will be returned in the variable $values.

However, if one of the data does not comply with the rules, an array with index validation_errors will be returned containing the errors.

Filters

To apply filters to your data, use the second parameter of the validate method.

class StoreController
{
    public function index()
    {
        $data_rules = [
            'username' => 'required|alpha_numeric|max_len,100|min_len,6',
            'password' => 'required|max_len,100|min_len,6',
            'email'    => 'required|valid_email'
        ];

        $data_filter = [
            'username' => 'upper_case|sanitize_string',
            'password' => 'trim',
            'email'    => 'trim|sanitize_email'
        ];

        $values = input()->validate($data_rules, $data_filter);
        var_dump($values);
    }
}

Creating validation classes

To have better control of the validations you perform, you can create your own class that will store all your rules, filters and error messages.

To create a validator, you must run the following command:

php vinci create:validator MyValidator

All validators will be stored in the app/Components/Validator/ folder.

Structure

All validators you create will implement the RequestValidatorInterface interface. The validator you create will have the following structure:

<?php

namespace Solital\Components\Validator;

use Solital\Core\Http\RequestValidatorInterface;

class MyValidation implements RequestValidatorInterface
{
    #[\Override]
    public function rules(): array
    {
        return [];
    }

    #[\Override]
    public function filters(): array
    {
        return [];
    }

    #[\Override]
    public function messages(): array
    {
        return [];
    }
}

The rules() and filters() methods will be used for rules and filters. The messages() method will have custom error messages as shown in the example below.

#[\Override]
public function messages(): array
{
    return [
        'username' => ['required' => 'Fill the Username field please, its required.'],
        'password' => ['required' => 'Please enter a password. This field is empty.'],
        'email'    => ['valid_email' => 'Please enter a valid e-mail.']
    ];
}

Using the validator

To use the validator you created, you must pass the validator name in the validate() method.

use Solital\Components\Validator\MyValidation;

class StoreController
{
    public function index()
    {
        $values = input()->validate(MyValidation::class);
        var_dump($values);
    }
}

Available Validators

Rule Description
required Ensures the specified key value exists and is not empty (not null, not empty string, not empty array).
contains,one;two;use array format if one of the values contains semicolons Verify that a value is contained within the pre-defined value set.
contains_list,value1;value2 Verify that a value is contained within the pre-defined value set. Error message will NOT show the list of possible values.
doesnt_contain_list,value1;value2 Verify that a value is contained within the pre-defined value set. Error message will NOT show the list of possible values.
boolean,strict Determine if the provided value is a valid boolean. Returns true for: yes/no, on/off, 1/0, true/false. In strict mode (optional) only true/false will be valid which you can combine with boolean filter.
valid_email Determine if the provided email has valid format.
max_len,240 Determine if the provided value length is less or equal to a specific value.
min_len,4 Determine if the provided value length is more or equal to a specific value.
exact_len,5 Determine if the provided value length matches a specific value.
between_len,3;11 Determine if the provided value length is between min and max values.
alpha Determine if the provided value contains only alpha characters.
alpha_numeric Determine if the provided value contains only alpha-numeric characters.
alpha_dash Determine if the provided value contains only alpha characters with dashed and underscores.
alpha_numeric_dash Determine if the provided value contains only alpha numeric characters with dashed and underscores.
alpha_numeric_space Determine if the provided value contains only alpha numeric characters with spaces.
alpha_space Determine if the provided value contains only alpha characters with spaces.
numeric Determine if the provided value is a valid number or numeric string.
integer Determine if the provided value is a valid integer.
float Determine if the provided value is a valid float.
valid_url Determine if the provided value is a valid URL.
url_exists Determine if a URL exists & is accessible.
valid_ip Determine if the provided value is a valid IP address.
valid_ipv4 Determine if the provided value is a valid IPv4 address.
valid_ipv6 Determine if the provided value is a valid IPv6 address.
valid_cc Determine if the input is a valid credit card number.
valid_name Determine if the input is a valid human name.
street_address Determine if the provided input is likely to be a street address using weak detection.
iban Determine if the provided value is a valid IBAN.
date,d/m/Y Determine if the provided input is a valid date (ISO 8601) or specify a custom format (optional).
min_age,18 Determine if the provided input meets age requirement (ISO 8601). Input should be a date (Y-m-d).
max_numeric,50 Determine if the provided numeric value is lower or equal to a specific value.
min_numeric,1 Determine if the provided numeric value is higher or equal to a specific value.
starts,Z Determine if the provided value starts with param.
required_file Determine if the file was successfully uploaded.
extension,png;jpg;gif Check the uploaded file for extension. Doesn't check mime-type yet.
equalsfield,other_field_name Determine if the provided field value equals current field value.
guidv4 Determine if the provided field value is a valid GUID (v4)
phone_number Determine if the provided value is a valid phone number.
regex,/test-[0-9]{3}/ Custom regex validator.
valid_json_string Determine if the provided value is a valid JSON string.
valid_array_size_greater,1 Check if an input is an array and if the size is more or equal to a specific value.
valid_array_size_lesser,1 Check if an input is an array and if the size is less or equal to a specific value.
valid_array_size_equal,1 Check if an input is an array and if the size is equal to a specific value.

Available Filters

Filter rules can also be any PHP native function (e.g.: trim).

Filter Description
noise_words Replace noise words in a string (http://tax.cchgroup.com/help/Avoiding_noise_words_in_your_search.htm).
rmpunctuation Remove all known punctuation from a string.
urlencode Sanitize the string by urlencoding characters.
htmlencode Sanitize the string by converting HTML characters to their HTML entities.
sanitize_email Sanitize the string by removing illegal characters from emails.
sanitize_numbers Sanitize the string by removing illegal characters from numbers.
sanitize_floats Sanitize the string by removing illegal characters from float numbers.
sanitize_string Sanitize the string by removing any script tags.
boolean Converts ['1', 1, 'true', true, 'yes', 'on'] to true, anything else is false ('on' is useful for form checkboxes).
basic_tags Filter out all HTML tags except the defined basic tags.
whole_number Convert the provided numeric value to a whole number.
ms_word_characters Convert MS Word special characters to web safe characters. ([“ ”] => ", [‘ ’] => ', [–] => -, […] => ...)
lower_case Converts to lowercase.
upper_case Converts to uppercase.
slug Converts value to url-web-slugs.
trim Remove spaces from the beginning and end of strings (PHP).

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