Validator

Validator is a server side data validation library for PHP. Validate html form-data, objects, arrays and json etc. Validator make data validation simple.

Installation

• Install composer if you have not installed.

composer require unicframework/validator

Set Validation Rules

We can set data validation rules using rules method.

use Validator\Validator;

// Set data validation rules
$validator = Validator::make([
  'first_name' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'string' => true
  ],
  'last_name' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'string' => true
  ],
  'email' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'email' => true
  ],
  'gender' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'in' => ['male', 'female']
  ],
  'password' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'minlength' => 6
  ]
]);

We can also use a shorthand method to set data validation rules, which is very simple and shorter.

use Validator\Validator;

// Set data validation rules
$validator = Validator::make([
  'first_name,last_name' => 'required|not_null|string',
  'email' => 'required|not_null|email',
  'gender' => 'required|not_null|in:male,female',
  'password' => 'required|not_null|minlength:6'
]);

Set Error Messages

We can set error messages using messages method. if we don’t set error messages then validator automatically generate error messages for you.

use Validator\Validator;

// Set validation error messages
$validator = Validator::make([
  'first_name' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'string' => true
  ],
  'last_name' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'string' => true
  ],
  'email' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'email' => true
  ],
  'gender' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'in' => ['male', 'female']
  ],
  'password' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'minlength' => 6
  ]
],
[
  'first_name' => [
    'required' => 'First name is required',
    'not_null' => 'First name can not be null',
    'string' => 'First name should be in string'
  ],
  'last_name' => [
    'required' => 'Last name is required',
    'not_null' => 'Last name can not be null',
    'string' => 'Last name should be in string'
  ],
  'email' => [
    'required' => 'Email is required',
    'not_null' => 'Email can not be null',
    'email' => 'Please enter valid email address'
  ],
  'gender' => [
    'required' => 'Gender is required',
    'not_null' => 'Gender can not be null',
    'in' => 'Please select valid gender'
  ],
  'password' => [
    'required' => 'Password is required',
    'not_null' => 'Password can not be null',
    'minlength' => 'Password length should be minimum 5 characters'
  ]
]);

We can also use a shorthand method to set data validation rules, which is very simple and shorter.

use Validator\Validator;

// Set validation error messages
$validator = Validator::make([
  'first_name,last_name' => 'required|not_null|string',
  'email' => 'required|not_null|email',
  'gender' => 'required|not_null|in:male,female',
  'password' => 'required|not_null|minlength:6'
],
[
  'first_name,last_name' => 'required:Name is required|not_null:Name can not be null|string:Name should be in string',
  'email' => 'required:Email is required|not_null:Email can not be null|email:Please enter valid email address',
  'gender' => 'required:Gender is required|not_null:Gender can not be null|in:Please select valid gender',
  'password' => 'required: Password is required|not_null:Password can not be null|minlength:Password length should be minimum 5 characters',
]);

Validate Data

Using validator we can validate html form-data, array, object and json data. Validator validate data according to rules. It will return true if all the data are valid, otherwise it will return false.

#### Validate single data :

use Validator\Validator;

$validator = Validator::make([
  'name' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'string' => true
  ],
  'gender' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'string' => true,
    'lowercase' => true,
    'in' => ['male', 'female', 'other']
  ],
  'contact.email' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'email' => true,
  ]
],
[
  'contact.email' => [
    'required' => 'Please enter email address.',
    'email' => 'Please enter valid email address.'
  ]
]);

// Data for validation
// We can validate any data like arrays, objects, and json etc.
$data = [
  'name' => 'abc xyz',
  'gender' => 'male',
  'contact' => [
    'email' => 'abc@gmail.com'
  ]
];

// Validate data
if($validator->validate($data)) {
  //Ok data is valid
} else {
  // Display validation errors
  print_r($validator->errors();
}

#### Validate multiple sets of data :

use Validator\Validator;

$validator = Validator::make([
  'name' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'string' => true
  ],
  'gender' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'string' => true,
    'lowercase' => true,
    'in' => ['male', 'female', 'other']
  ],
  'contact.email' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'email' => true,
  ]
],
[
  'contact.email' => [
    'required' => 'Please enter email address.',
    'email' => 'Please enter valid email address.'
  ]
]);

// Data for validation
// We can validate any data like arrays, objects, and json etc.
$data = [
  [
    'name' => 'abc xyz',
    'gender' => 'male',
    'contact' => [
      'email' => 'xyz@gmail.com'
    ]
  ],
  [
    'name' => 'xyz abc',
    'gender' => 'male',
    'contact' => [
      'email' => 'xyz@gmail.com'
    ]
  ]
];

// Validate multiple sets of data
if($validator->validate($data, true)) {
  // Ok data is valid
} else {
  // Display validation errors
  print_r($validator->errors());
}

Get Invalid Errors

We can get errors using errors method. the errors method return an array of errors.

// Get all errors
$errors = $validator->errors();

Get Valid Data

We can get valid parsed data using getValidData method. the getValidData method return an array of valid data.

// Get all valid data
$errors = $validator->getValidData();

Get Invalid Data

We can get invalid parsed data using getInvalidData method. the getInvalidData method return an array of invalid data.

// Get all invalid data
$errors = $validator->getInvalidData();

Set validation rules

Validator has a lots of predefined validation rules.

Rules	Value	Description
required	boolean	required fields check only data exists or not, it doesn’t check data is empty or null.
null	boolean	check data is empty or null, use true for empty or null and use false for non empty or not null values.
not_null	boolean	check data is empty or null, use true for not null and use false for empty or null values.
alphabet	boolean	match alphabetical data. use true for alphabetical and false for non alphabetical values.
numeric	boolean	match numeric data. use true for numeric and false for non numeric values.
alphanumeric	boolean	match alphanumeric data. use true for alphanumeric and false for non alphanumeric values.
lowercase	boolean	match case of string. use true for lowercase and false for non lowercase values.
uppercase	boolean	match case of string. use true for uppercase and false for non uppercase values.
string	boolean	match string data type. use true for string and false for non string values.
integer	boolean	match integer data type. use true for integer and false for non integer values.
float	boolean	match float data type. use true for float and false for non float values.
boolean	boolean	match boolean data type. use true for boolean and false for non boolean values.
array	boolean	match array data type. use true for array and false for non array values.
object	boolean	match object data type. use true for object and false for non object values.
json	boolean	match json data type. use true for json and false for non json values.
minlength	integer	match minimum length of string.
maxlength	integer	match maximum length of string.
min	integer	match minimum value of number.
max	integer	match maximum value of number.
email	boolean	check given email is valid email address or not.
file	boolean	check data is uploaded file or not.
file_mime_type	array	match file mime type in given array.
file_extension	array	match file extension in given array.
min_file_size	bytes	match minimum file size.
max_file_size	bytes	match maximum file size.
in	array	match data in given array.
not_in	array	match data in given array.
equal	mixed	it will match data with given data.
not_equal	mixed	it will match data with given data.

Set Custom Rules

We can set predefined/custom rules for data validation. Custom rules take a callback function with one argument. If custom rule return true that means data is valid and if it will return false that means data is invalid.

// Set validation rules
$validator = Validator::make([
  'email' => [
    'required' => true,
    'not_null' => true,
    'email' => true,
    // Set your own custom rules
    'blocked' => function($value) {
      if($value == 'abc@gmail.com') {
        // Email abc@gmail.com is blocked
        return false;
      } else {
        return true;
      }
    },
    // Set your own custom rules
    'available' => is_available($value),
  ]
],
[
  // Set error messages for custom rules
  'email' => [
    'blocked' => 'this email address is blocked',
    'available' => 'this email address is already registered',
  ]
]);

License

MIT License