Somnambulist Validation

This is a re-write of rakit/validation, a standalone validator like Laravel Validation. In keeping with rakit/validation, this library does not have any other dependencies for usage.

Please note that the internal API is substantially different to rakit/validation.

Jump to rules

Requirements

• PHP 8.0+
• ext/mb-string

Installation

Install using composer, or checkout / pull the files from github.com.

• composer require somnambulist/validation

Usage

There are two ways for validating data with this library: using make to make a validation object, then validate it using validate; or use validate.

For example:

Using make:

<?php

require('vendor/autoload.php');

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = (new Factory)->make($_POST + $_FILES, [
    'name'                  => 'required',
    'email'                 => 'required|email',
    'password'              => 'required|min:6',
    'confirm_password'      => 'required|same:password',
    'avatar'                => 'required|uploaded_file:0,500K,png,jpeg',
    'skills'                => 'array',
    'skills.*.id'           => 'required|numeric',
    'skills.*.percentage'   => 'required|numeric'
]);
$validation->validate();

if ($validation->fails()) {
    // handling errors
    $errors = $validation->errors();
    echo "<pre>";
    print_r($errors->firstOfAll());
    echo "</pre>";
    exit;
} else {
    // validation passes
    echo "Success!";
}

or via validate:

<?php

require('vendor/autoload.php');

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = (new Factory)->validate($_POST + $_FILES, [
    'name'                  => 'required',
    'email'                 => 'required|email',
    'password'              => 'required|min:6',
    'confirm_password'      => 'required|same:password',
    'avatar'                => 'required|uploaded_file:0,500K,png,jpeg',
    'skills'                => 'array',
    'skills.*.id'           => 'required|numeric',
    'skills.*.percentage'   => 'required|numeric'
]);

if ($validation->fails()) {
	// handling errors
	$errors = $validation->errors();
	echo "<pre>";
	print_r($errors->firstOfAll());
	echo "</pre>";
	exit;
} else {
	// validation passes
	echo "Success!";
}

You are strongly advised to use a Dependency Injection container and store the Factory as a singleton instead of creating new instances. This will reduce the penalty for creating validation instances and allow custom rules to be more easily managed.

Attribute Aliases

Unlike rakit/validation, attribute names are not transformed in any way; instead, if you wish to name your attributes, aliases must be used.

Aliases can be defined in several ways: on the rule itself, or by adding the alias to the validation. Note that aliases should be set before calling validate.

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = (new Factory)->make([
	'province_id' => $_POST['province_id'],
	'district_id' => $_POST['district_id']
], [
	'province_id:Province' => 'required|numeric',
	'district_id:District' => 'required|numeric'
]);

// or set the aliases:
$validation->setAlias('province_id', 'Province');
$validation->setAlias('district_id', 'District');

// then validate it
$validation->validate();

Validated, Valid, and Invalid Data

After validation, the data results are held in each validation instance. For example:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = (new Factory())->validate([
    'title' => 'Lorem Ipsum',
    'body' => 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet ...',
    'published' => null,
    'something' => '-invalid-'
], [
    'title' => 'required',
    'body' => 'required',
    'published' => 'default:1|required|in:0,1',
    'something' => 'required|numeric'
]);

Now you can get the validated data, only the valid data, or only the invalid data:

$validatedData = $validation->getValidatedData();
// [
//     'title' => 'Lorem Ipsum',
//     'body' => 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet ...',
//     'published' => '1' // notice this
//     'something' => '-invalid-'
// ]

$validData = $validation->getValidData();
// [
//     'title' => 'Lorem Ipsum',
//     'body' => 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet ...',
//     'published' => '1'
// ]

$invalidData = $validation->getInvalidData();
// [
//     'something' => '-invalid-'
// ]

Available Rules

Click to show details.

accepted

The field under this rule must be one of 'on', 'yes', '1', 'true' (the string "true"), or true.

after:tomorrow

The field under this rule must be a date after the given minimum.

The parameter should be any valid string that can be parsed by strtotime. For example:

• after:next week
• after:2016-12-31
• after:2016
• after:2016-12-31 09:56:02

alpha

The field under this rule must be entirely alphabetic characters.

alpha_num

The field under this rule must be entirely alpha-numeric characters.

alpha_dash

The field under this rule may have alpha-numeric characters, as well as dashes and underscores.

alpha_spaces

The field under this rule may have alpha characters, as well as spaces.

any_of:value,value,value

A variation of in: here the values (separated by default with a ,) must all be in the given values. For example: order => 'name,date' with the rule any_of:name,id would fail validation as date is not part of the allowed values. The separator can be changed by calling separator() on the rule instance.

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;
use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rules\AnyOf;

$validation = $factory->validate([
    'field' => 'foo;bar;example'
], [
    'field' => $factory->rule('any_of')->separator(';')->values(['foo', 'bar']),
]);

$validation->passes(); // true if field only contains the values in any_of

Like in, comparisons can be performed use strict matching by calling ->strict(true) on the rule.

This rule is useful for APIs that allow comma separated data as a single parameter e.g. JsonAPI include, order etc. If the source is already an array, then array|in:... can be used instead.

array

The field under this rule must be an array.

array_must_have_keys:value,value,value

The array must contain all the specified keys to be valid. This is useful to ensure that a nested array meets a prescribed format. The same thing can be achieved by using individual rules for each key with required. Note that this will still allow additional keys to be present, it merely validates the presence of specific keys.

This rule is best used in conjunction with the array rule, though it can be used standalone.

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = $factory->validate([
    'filters' => ['foo' => 'bar', 'baz' => 'example']
], [
    'filters' => 'array|array_must_have_keys:foo,bar,baz',
]);

$validation->passes(); // true if filters has all the keys in array_must_have_keys

The following examples are functionally equivalent:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = $factory->validate([
    'filters' => ['foo' => 'bar', 'baz' => 'example']
], [
    'filters' => 'array|array_must_have_keys:foo,bar,baz',
    'filters.foo' => 'string|between:1,50',
    'filters.bar' => 'numeric|min:1',
    'filters.baz' => 'uuid',
]);

$validation = $factory->validate([
    'filters' => ['foo' => 'bar', 'baz' => 'example']
], [
    'filters' => 'array',
    'filters.foo' => 'required|string|between:1,50',
    'filters.bar' => 'required|numeric|min:1',
    'filters.baz' => 'required|uuid',
]);

array_can_only_have_keys:value,value,value

The array can only contain the specified keys, any keys not present will fail validation. By default, associative data has no restrictions on the key => values that can be present. For example: you have filters for a search box that are passed to SQL, only the specified keys should be allowed to be sent and not any value in the array of filters.

This rule is best used in conjunction with the array rule, though it can be used standalone.

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = $factory->validate([
    'filters' => ['foo' => 'bar', 'baz' => 'example']
], [
    'filters' => 'array|array_can_only_have_keys:foo,bar',
]);

$validation->passes(); // true if filters only has the keys in array_can_only_have_keys

before:yesterday

The field under this rule must be a date before the given maximum.

This also works the same way as the after rule. Pass anything that can be parsed by strtotime

between:min,max

The field under this rule must have a size between min and max params. Value size is calculated in the same way as min and max rule.

You can also validate the size of uploaded files using this rule:

$validation = $validator->validate([
    'photo' => $_FILES['photo']
], [
    'photo' => 'required|between:1M,2M'
]);

boolean

The field under this rule must be boolean. Accepted inputs are true, false, 1, 0, "1", and "0".

callback

Define a custom callback to validate the value. This rule cannot be registered using the string syntax. To use this rule, you must use the array syntax and either explicitly specify callback, or pass the closure:

$validation = $validator->validate($_POST, [
    'even_number' => [
        'required',
        function ($value) {
            // false = invalid
            return (is_numeric($value) AND $value % 2 === 0);
        },
        'callback' => fn ($v) => is_numeric($v) && $v % 2 === 0,
    ]
]);

You can set a custom message by returning a string instead of false. To allow for message translation, instead of a literal string; return a message key instead and add this to the message bag on the Factory.

Note: returning a message string will be removed in a future version, requiring only boolean responses. Instead, set the message string directly before returning true/false via $this->message = "";.

$validation = $validator->validate($_POST, [
    'even_number' => [
        'required',
        function ($value) {
            if (!is_numeric($value)) {
                return ":attribute must be numeric.";
            }
            if ($value % 2 !== 0) {
                return ":attribute is not even number.";
            }
            
            return true; // always return true if validation passes
        }
    ]
]);

Note: callback closures are bound to the rule instance allowing access to rule properties via $this.

date:format

The field under this rule must be valid date following a given format. Parameter format is optional, default format is Y-m-d.

default/defaults

If the attribute has no value, this default will be used in place in the validated data.

For example if you have validation like this

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = (new Factory)->validate([
    'enabled' => null
], [
    'enabled' => 'default:1|required|in:0,1'
    'published' => 'default:0|required|in:0,1'
]);

$validation->passes(); // true

// Get the valid/default data
$valid_data = $validation->getValidData();

$enabled = $valid_data['enabled'];
$published = $valid_data['published'];

Validation passes because the default value for enabled and published is set to 1 and 0 which is valid.

different:another_field

Opposite of same; the field value under this rule must be different to another_field value.

digits:value

The field under validation must be numeric and must have an exact length of value.

digits_between:min,max

The field under validation must be numeric and have a length between the given min and max.

email

The field under this validation must be a valid email address according to the built-in PHP filter extension.

See FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL for details.

ends_with:another_field

The field under this validation must end with another_field. Comparison can be against strings, numbers and array elements.

exists:table,column (database)

The field under this validation must exist in the given table. This does not check for uniqueness, only that at least one record for the provided value and column in the table is there.

To use this rule, you must provide a DBAL connection. This should be done via dependency injection.

For example:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = (new Factory)->validate([
    'country' => 'GBR'
], [
    'country' => 'exists:countries,id',
]);

$validation->passes(); // true if table countries has a record with id GBR

For more refined validation, the underlying query may be modified by setting a closure by calling ->where(). The closure will be passed a Doctrine\DBAL\Query\QueryBuilder instance.

use Doctrine\DBAL\Query\QueryBuilder;
use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;
use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rules\Exists;

$factory    = new Factory;
$factory->addRule('exists', new Exists($dbalConn));

$validation = $factory->validate([
    'country' => 'GBR'
], [
    'country' => $factory->rule('exists')->table('countries')->column('id')->where(fn (QueryBuilder $qb) => $qb->andWhere('active = 1')),
]);

$validation->passes(); // true if table countries has a record with id GBR and it is active

extension:extension_a,extension_b,...

The field under this rule must end with an extension corresponding to one of those listed.

This is useful for validating a file type for a given path or url. The mimes rule should be used for validating uploads.

If you require strict mime checking you should implement a custom MimeTypeGuesser that can make use of a server side file checker that uses a mime library.

float

The field under this rule must be a floating point number, for example: 0.0 12.3456 etc. The value may be a string containing a float. Note that integers and 0 (zero) will fail validation with this rule.

in:value_1,value_2,...

The field under this rule must be included in the given list of values.

To help build the string rule, the In (and NotIn) rules have a helper method:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;
use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rules\In;

$factory = new Factory();
$validation = $factory->validate($data, [
    'enabled' => [
        'required',
        In::make([true, 1])
    ]
]);

This rule uses in_array to perform the validation and by default does not perform strict checking. If you require strict checking, you can invoke the rule like this:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$factory = new Factory();
$validation = $factory->validate($data, [
    'enabled' => [
        'required',
        $factory->rule('in')->values([true, 1])->strict()
    ]
]);

Then 'enabled' value should be boolean true, or int 1.

integer

The field under validation must be an integer.

ip

The field under this rule must be a valid ipv4 or ipv6 address.

ipv4

The field under this rule must be a valid ipv4 address.

ipv6

The field under this rule must be a valid ipv6 address.

json

The field under this validation must be a valid JSON string.

length:number

The field under this validation must be a string of exactly the length specified.

lowercase

The field under this validation must be in lowercase.

max:number

The field under this rule must have a size less than or equal to the given number. Value size is calculated in the same way as the min rule.

You can also validate the maximum size of uploaded files using this rule:

$validation = $validator->validate([
    'photo' => $_FILES['photo']
], [
    'photo' => 'required|max:2M'
]);

mimes:extension_a,extension_b,...

The $_FILES item under validation must have a MIME type corresponding to one of the listed extensions.

This works on file extension and not client sent headers or embedded file type. If you require strict mime type validation you are recommended to implement a custom MimeTypeGuesser that uses a full mime-type lookup library and replace the built-in mime rule.

Additional mime types can be added to the existing guesser by using dependency injection and keeping the mime type guesser as a service.

min:number

The field under this rule must have a size greater than or equal to the given number.

For string values, the size corresponds to the number of characters. For integer or float values, size corresponds to its numerical value. For an array, size corresponds to the count of the array. If your value is numeric string, you can use the numeric rule to treat its size as a numeric value instead of the number of characters.

You can also validate the minimum size of uploaded files using this rule:

$validation = $validator->validate([
    'photo' => $_FILES['photo']
], [
    'photo' => 'required|min:1M'
]);

not_in:value_1,value_2,...

The field under this rule must not be included in the given list of values.

This rule also uses in_array and can have strict checks enabled the same way as In.

nullable

The field under this rule may be empty.

numeric

The field under this rule must be numeric.

present

The field under this rule must be in the set of inputs, whatever the value is.

prohibited

The field under this rule is not allowed.

prohibited_if

The field under this rule is not allowed if another_field is provided with any of the value(s).

prohibited_unless

The field under this rule is not allowed unless another_field has one of these values. This is the inverse of prohibited_if.

regex:/your-regex/

The field under this rule must match the given regex. Note: if you require the use of |, then the regex rule must be written in array format instead of as a string. For example:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = (new Factory())->validate([
    'field' => 'value'
], [
    'field' => [
        'required',
        'regex' => '/(this|that|value)/'
    ]
])

rejected

The field under this rule must have a value that corresponds to rejection i.e. 0 (zero), "0", false, no, "false", off. This is the inverse of the accepted rule.

required

The field under this validation must be present and not 'empty'.

Here are some examples:

Value	Valid
'something'	true
'0'	true
0	true
[0]	true
[null]	true
null	false
[]	false
''	false

For uploaded files, $_FILES['key']['error'] must not be UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE.

required_if:another_field,value_1,value_2,...

The field under this rule must be present and not empty if the another_field field is equal to any value.

For example required_if:something,1,yes,on will be required if something's value is one of 1, '1', 'yes', or 'on'.

required_unless:another_field,value_1,value_2,...

The field under validation must be present and not empty unless the another_field field is equal to any value.

requires:field_1,field_2,...

The field under validation requires that the specified fields are present in the input data and are not empty.

For example: field b "requires:a"; if a is either not present, or has an "empty" value, then the validation fails. "empty" is false, empty string, or null.

This is an extension of required_with, however the rule will fail when used with sometimes or nullable. For example: if b "requires:a" and "a" is allowed to be nullable, b will fail as it explicitly requires a with a value.

required_with:field_1,field_2,...

The field under validation must be present and not empty only if any of the other specified fields are present.

Note: the behaviour of this rule can be circumvented if the rule this is defined on is sometimes or nullable. For example: if a is "required_with:b", but a is also only sometimes present, then the required_with will never trigger as the sometimes rule will negate it. a would also need to be explicitly passed to trigger the rule.

required_without:field_1,field_2,...

The field under validation must be present and not empty only when any of the other specified fields are not present.

required_with_all:field_1,field_2,...

The field under validation must be present and not empty only if all the other specified fields are present.

required_without_all:field_1,field_2,...

The field under validation must be present and not empty only when all the other specified fields are not present.

same:another_field

The field value under this rule must have the same value as another_field.

sometimes

The field should only be validated if present in the input data. For example: field => sometimes|required|email

starts_with:another_field

The field under this validation must start with another_field. Comparison can be against strings, numbers and array elements.

string

The field under this rule must be a PHP string.

unique:table,column,ignore,ignore_column (database)

The field under this validation must be unique in the given table. Optionally: a value may be ignored and this could be an alternative column value if the ignore_column is given.

To use this rule, you must provide a DBAL connection. This should be done via dependency injection.

For example:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = (new Factory)->validate([
    'email' => '[email protected]'
], [
    'email' => 'email|unique:users,email',
]);

$validation->passes(); // true if table users does not contain the email

Ignore the current users email address:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = (new Factory)->validate([
    'email' => '[email protected]'
], [
    'email' => 'email|unique:users,email,10,id',
]);

$validation->passes(); // true if table users ignoring id 10, does not contain email

For more refined validation, the underlying query may be modified by setting a closure by calling ->where(). The closure will be passed a Doctrine\DBAL\Query\QueryBuilder instance.

use Doctrine\DBAL\Query\QueryBuilder;
use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;
use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rules\Unique;

$factory    = new Factory;
$factory->addRule('unique', new Unique($dbalConn));

$validation = $factory->validate([
    'email' => '[email protected]'
], [
    'email' => $factory->rule('unique')->table('users')->column('email')->where(fn (QueryBuilder $qb) => $qb->andWhere('active = 1')),
]);

$validation->passes(); // true if table users does not contain an active email

uploaded_file:min_size,max_size,extension_a,extension_b,...

This rule will validate data from $_FILES. The field under this rule has the following conditions:

• $_FILES['key']['error'] must be UPLOAD_ERR_OK or UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE. For UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE you can validate it with required rule.
• If min size is given, uploaded file size MUST NOT be lower than min size.
• If max size is given, uploaded file size MUST NOT be higher than max size.
• If file types is given, mime type must be one of those given types.

For size constraints both must be given when using the string definition. To specify only a max size, use the factory to fetch the rule and use method chaining.

Here are some example definitions and explanations:

• uploaded_file: uploaded file is optional. When it is not empty, it must be ERR_UPLOAD_OK.
• required|uploaded_file: uploaded file is required, and it must be ERR_UPLOAD_OK.
• uploaded_file:0,1M: uploaded file size must be between 0 - 1 MB, but uploaded file is optional.
• required|uploaded_file:0,1M,png,jpeg: uploaded file size must be between 0 - 1MB and mime types must be image/jpeg or image/png.

For multiple file uploads, PHP uses the format _FILES[key][name][0..n+1] (see PHP manual for more details). Provided the attribute key is given using dot notation, the files array is automatically re-ordered to a nested array of related attributes. This allows multiple files to be validated using the same rule. This will only occur if the attribute name uses dot notation.

From 1.4.2, allowing multiple files without a dot rule will raise a RuntimeException.

For example if you have input files like this:

<input type="file" name="photos[]"/>
<input type="file" name="photos[]"/>
<input type="file" name="photos[]"/>

You can validate all the files by using:

$validation = (new Factory)->validate($_FILES, [
    'photos.*' => 'uploaded_file:0,2M,jpeg,png'
]);

// or

$validation = (new Factory)->validate($_FILES, [
    'photos.*' => 'uploaded_file|max:2M|mimes:jpeg,png'
]);

Or if you have input files like this:

<input type="file" name="images[profile]"/>
<input type="file" name="images[cover]"/>

You can validate it like this:

$validation = (new Factory)->validate($_FILES, [
    'images.*' => 'uploaded_file|max:2M|mimes:jpeg,png',
]);

// or

$validation = (new Factory)->validate($_FILES, [
    'images.profile' => 'uploaded_file|max:2M|mimes:jpeg,png',
    'images.cover' => 'uploaded_file|max:5M|mimes:jpeg,png',
]);

uppercase

The field under this validation must be in uppercase.

url

The field under this rule must be a valid url format. The default is to validate the common format: any_scheme://.... You can specify specific URL schemes if you wish.

For example:

$validation = (new Factory)->validate($inputs, [
    'random_url' => 'url',          // value can be `any_scheme://...`
    'https_url' => 'url:http',      // value must be started with `https://`
    'http_url' => 'url:http,https', // value must be started with `http://` or `https://`
    'ftp_url' => 'url:ftp',         // value must be started with `ftp://`
    'custom_url' => 'url:custom',   // value must be started with `custom://`
]);

Unlike rakit, mailto and JDBC are not supported. Implement a custom rule or a regex to validate these.

uuid

The field under this validation must be a valid UUID and not the nil UUID string.

Optional vs Nullable Validation

Sometimes attributes can be left off or can be null. These cases should be handled carefully and have different results after validation.

For optional attributes that can be left out of the data under validation i.e. only validated if the data is present, the sometimes rule may be used. If this is specified, then that attribute can be left out completely OR it must meet the validation criteria. This is very useful for things like search filters, or pagination markers that are not always required:

[
    'filters' => 'sometimes|array',
]

In this example filters is entirely optional but if specified should be an array of values. Passing [filters => ''] would not be valid, it would have to be: [filters => []].

Sometimes instead of the attribute being optional, it should be undefined i.e. null. Generally it is preferable to use sometimes and have the value omitted but there may be a case to maintain the attribute with a null value. In these instances use the nullable rule. This will allow the attribute to be present without any value. For example: the users birthday may be nullable or a date: nullable|date.

Unlike rakit/validation, the use of nullable data can cause issues as this library uses strict typing throughout. This means that many rules that test for string, or array, or a number error because they receive null. This is an ambiguity in the rule definition process. For example the rule: name: string|max:200 as defined implicitly implies that the name should be a string and up to 200 characters - null should not be valid, but to maintain partial compatibility it will allow null.

The next major version of this library will remove this handling and make this type of definition require that the field be both present and have a value that is not empty (unless empty is specifically allowed). To allow null values, the nullable rule will need to explicitly defined. As such it is good practice to always use nullable or sometimes.

Validating Array Data

This library can validate complex arrays of data by making use of dot notation to define the structure of the array. There are a couple of variations and some edge cases to be aware of to prevent issues.

The most common situation is wanting to allow an array of options similar to the examples earlier in this readme.

[
    'skills'              => 'array',
    'skills.*.id'         => 'required|numeric',
    'skills.*.percentage' => 'required|numeric'
],

The earlier example rules are set to validate user related data and includes an array of skills. Each skill has an id and a percentage value. In this case the parent key skills should have the rule array defined. This is needed to ensure the data is actually an array. Each skill property is then referenced using * to indicate there are multiple values within the skills attribute.

These rules would validate the following array structure:

[
    'skills' => [
        [
            'id' => 3,
            'percentage' => 50,
        ],
        [
            'id' => 17,
            'percentage' => 50,
        ],
    ]
]

The less common situation is an array of arrays without a parent key. In this case there is no prefix and each sub-key starts with a *. In this situation you should be careful not to mix standard key -> value pairs with the array data.

For example:

[
    '*.id'         => 'required|numeric',
    '*.percentage' => 'required|numeric'
]

would be used to validate the following array structure:

[
    [
        'id' => 3,
        'percentage' => 50,
    ],
    [
        'id' => 17,
        'percentage' => 50,
    ],
]

To avoid problems you would need to ensure that the data would not include:

[
    'name' => 'foo bar',
    [
        'id' => 3,
        'percentage' => 50,
    ],
    [
        'id' => 17,
        'percentage' => 50,
    ],
]

Dependent Validation Rules and Array Data

Some rules are used to determine the presence or to be required if certain keys are present. Usually these use the standard key name e.g.: confirm_password should be the same as the password field, so the rule is written as: same:password.

However: for array data this will not work as the attribute is not the name of the attribute but the path for that attribute.

Using the same skills array as an example, say we wanted to require a label if the skill is new. If this was specified as required_if:id:null, then the validation would look for an attribute named id in the root of the data - but it does not exist, or it may find the wrong key.

Instead: we have to explicitly bind the rule to the same skill key by writing the rule as: required_if:skills.*.id,null. If we don't do this, then the rule will be ignored or fail. The same applies when using array of arrays: referencing other fields within that array should be prefixed with a *. e.g. required_if:*.id,null.

Here are examples of both syntaxes:

[
    'skills.*.id'         => 'sometimes|numeric',
    'skills.*.percentage' => 'required|numeric',
    'skills.*.title'      => 'required_if:skills.*.id,null|string',
]

And array of arrays:

[
    '*.id'         => 'sometimes|numeric',
    '*.percentage' => 'required|numeric',
    '*.title'      => 'required_if:*.id,null|string',
]

Validation Messages

Validation messages are defined in Resources/i18n/en.php. Any message can be replaced with a custom string, or translated to another language. The English strings are always loaded during Factory instantiation.

Depending on the failure type, various variables will be available to use, however, the following are always available for all messages:

• :attribute: the attribute under validation, alias will be used if set,
• :value: the value of the attribute under validation, converted to string with arrays and objects as JSON strings.

Loading translation messages

By default, only the English messages are loaded by the Factory class. At the time of writing a German translation has been provided by contributors, however any language can be added by creating a PHP file that returns an array of strings with the message keys and the new messages.

To load a built-in language, you must call Factor::registerLanguageMessages() before calling validate. For example:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$factory = new Factory();
$factory->registerLanguageMessages('de');

registerLanguageMessages has a second, optional, argument that allows the path to the language file to be specified. If not provided, then the library path of <vendor_dir>/src/Resources/i18n will be used. If you wish to use a completely customised language file, then use the second argument to provide your file. This can be an English language file to fully override the default messages.

For example:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$factory = new Factory();
$factory->registerLanguageMessages('en', '/path/to/project/i18n/en_US.php');

You can make multiple calls to add multiple languages:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$factory = new Factory();
$factory->registerLanguageMessages('en', '/path/to/project/i18n/en_US.php');
$factory->registerLanguageMessages('es', '/path/to/project/i18n/es.php');
$factory->registerLanguageMessages('de', '/path/to/project/i18n/de.php');

Custom Messages for Validator

All messages are stored in a MessageBag on the Factory instance. Additional languages can be added to this message bag, or customised on the specific validation instance. Additionally, the default language can be set on the message bag on the Factory, or a specific language set on the validation instance.

To add a new set of messages:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$factory = new Factory();
$factory->messages()->add('es', [
    'rule.required' => 'Se requiere :attribute',
]);

$validation = $factory->validate($inputs, $rules);
$validation->setLanguage('es')->validate();

Or override the default English strings:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$factory = new Factory();
$factory->messages()->replace('en', 'rule.required', 'Se requiere :attribute');

$validation = $factory->validate($inputs, $rules);
$validation->validate();

Or set the default language:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$factory = new Factory();
$factory->messages()->default('es');

$validation = $factory->validate($inputs, $rules);
$validation->validate();

Custom Message for Specific Attribute Rule

Sometimes you may want to set custom messages for specific attribute rules to make them more explicit or to add other information. This is done by adding a message key for the attribute with a : and the rule name.

For example:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validator = new Factory();
$validation_a = $validator->make($input, [
	'age' => 'required|min:18'
]);

$validation->messages()->add('en', 'age:min', '18+ only');

$validation->validate();

Sometimes you may wish to use parameters from other rules in your error messages. From version 1.6.0 you can access these using dot notation for the rule name and then the parameter you wish to use. For example:

A password attribute is validated using required|between:8,16|regex:/^[\\da-zA-Z!$%+.]+$/ but the error messages want to always reference the min/max values. This can be done as:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$factory = new Factory();
$factory->messages()->replace('en', 'password:between', 'Your password must be between :min and :max characters and only [! $ % + .] as special characters.');
$factory->messages()->replace('en', 'password:regex', 'Your password must be between :between.min and :between.max characters and only [! $ % + .] as special characters.');

For the regex message, the parameters from between are referenced by prefixing the min/max with between.. Not all rules have parameters, in these instances there will be no replacement made.

Note that only rule parameters for the same attribute can be referenced. You cannot access parameters from a completely different attribute e.g.: if you validated email or username, you would not be able to access those parameters in the password context.

Custom Messages for Rules

Some rules have several possible validation messages. These are all named as rule.<name>.<check>. To change the message, override or add the specific message.

For example, uploaded_file can have failures for the file, min/max size and type. These are bound to:

• rule.uploaded_file
• rule.uploaded_file.min_size
• rule.uploaded_file.max_size
• rule.uploaded_file.type

To change any of the sub-messages, add/override that message key on the message bag.

For example:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validator = new Factory();
$validation_a = $validator->make($input, [
	'age' => 'required|min:18'
]);

$validation->messages()->add('en', 'age:min', '18+ only');

$validation->validate();

Unlike rakit, it is not possible to set custom messages in the Rule instances directly. Any message must be set in the message bag.

Complex Translation Needs

The system for translations in this library is rather basic. If you have complex needs, or wish to handle countables etc. Then all error messages are stored as ErrorMessage instances containing the message key and the variables for that message.

Instead of using the ErrorBag to display messages, you can use the underlying array (or a DataBag instance) and then pass the message keys to your translation system along with the variables.

Note that errors are a nested set by attribute and rule name.

Working with Error Messages

Error messages are collected in an ErrorBag instance that you can access via errors() on the validation instance.

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$validation = (new Factory())->validate($inputs, $rules);

$errors = $validation->errors();

Now you can use the following methods to retrieve the messages:

all(string $format = ':message')

Get all messages as a flattened array:

$messages = $errors->all();
// [
//     'email is not a valid email address',
//     'password minimum is 6 characters',
//     'password must contain capital letters'
// ]

$messages = $errors->all('<li>:message</li>');
// [
//     '<li>email is not a valid email address</li>',
//     '<li>password minimum is 6 character</li>',
//     '<li>password must contain capital letters</li>'
// ]

firstOfAll(string $format = ':message', bool $dotNotation = false)

Get only the first message from all existing keys:

$messages = $errors->firstOfAll();
// [
//     'email' => 'Email is not valid email',
//     'password' => 'Password minimum 6 character',
// ]

$messages = $errors->firstOfAll('<li>:message</li>');
// [
//     'email' => '<li>Email is not valid email</li>',
//     'password' => '<li>Password minimum 6 character</li>',
// ]

Argument $dotNotation is for array validation. If it is false it will return the original array structure, if it is true it will return a flattened array with dot notation keys.

For example:

$messages = $errors->firstOfAll(':message', false);
// [
//     'contacts' => [
//          1 => [
//              'email' => 'Email is not valid email',
//              'phone' => 'Phone is not valid phone number'
//          ],
//     ],
// ]

$messages = $errors->firstOfAll(':message', true);
// [
//     'contacts.1.email' => 'Email is not valid email',
//     'contacts.1.phone' => 'Email is not valid phone number',
// ]

first(string $key)

Get the first message for the given key. It will return a string if key has any error message, or null if the key has no errors.

For example:

if ($emailError = $errors->first('email')) {
    echo $emailError;
}

toArray()

Get the raw underlying associative array of ErrorMessage objects.

For example:

$messages = $errors->toArray();
// [
//     'email' => [
//         'email' => 'Email is not valid email'
//     ],
//     'password' => [
//         'min' => 'Password minimum 6 character',
//         'regex' => Password must contains capital letters'
//     ]
// ]

toDataBag()

Get the raw underlying associative array of ErrorMessage objects as a DataBag instance.

For example:

$message = $errors->toDataBag()->filter()->first();

count()

Get the number of error messages.

has(string $key)

Check if the given key has an error. It returns true if a key has an error, and false otherwise.

Register/Override Rules

By default, all built-in rules are registered automatically to the Factory instance. Some of these are required internally (e.g. required and callback); however you can override or add any number of new rules to the factory to use for your validations.

This is done by accessing the addRule() method on the Factory and adding a new rule instance.

For example, you want to create the unique validator that will check field availability in a database.

First, lets create UniqueRule class:

<?php declare(strict_types=1);

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rule;

class UniqueRule extends Rule
{
    protected string $message = ":attribute :value has been used";
    protected array $fillableParams = ['table', 'column', 'except'];
    protected PDO $pdo;

    public function __construct(PDO $pdo)
    {
        $this->pdo = $pdo;
    }

    public function check($value): bool
    {
        // make sure required parameters exists
        $this->assertHasRequiredParameters(['table', 'column']);

        // getting parameters
        $column = $this->parameter('column');
        $table = $this->parameter('table');
        $except = $this->parameter('except');

        if ($except && $except == $value) {
            return true;
        }

        // do query
        $stmt = $this->pdo->prepare(sprintf('select count(*) as count from %s where %s = :value', $table, $column));
        $stmt->bindParam(':value', $value);
        $stmt->execute();
        $data = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

        // true for valid, false for invalid
        return intval($data['count']) === 0;
    }
}

Now to register this rule it needs adding to the Factory instance:

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Factory;

$factory = new Factory();
$factory->addRule('unique', new UniqueRule($pdo));

Now you can use it like this:

$validation = $factory->validate($_POST, [
    'email' => 'email|unique:users,email,[email protected]'
]);

In the UniqueRule above, the property $message is used for the invalid message. The property $fillableParams defines the order and names of the arguments for the rule. By default, fillParameters will fill parameters listed in $fillableParams from the string rules. For example, unique:users,email,[email protected] in example above, will set:

$params['table'] = 'users';
$params['column'] = 'email';
$params['except'] = '[email protected]';

If you want your custom rule to accept parameter lists like in,not_in, or uploaded_file rules, you need to override the fillParameters(array $params) method in your custom rule class.

Note that the unique rule that we created above also can be used like this:

$validation = $factory->validate($_POST, [
    'email' => [
    	'required', 'email',
    	$factory('unique', 'users', 'email')
    ]
]);

You can improve UniqueRule class above by adding some methods to set the params instead of using the string format:

<?php

class UniqueRule extends Rule
{
    public function table(string $table): self
    {
        $this->params['table'] = $table;
        
        return $this;
    }

    public function column(string $column): self
    {
        $this->params['column'] = $column;
        
        return $this;
    }

    public function except(string $value): self
    {
        $this->params['except'] = $value;
        
        return $this;
    }
}

Now configuring the rule becomes:

$validation = $factory->validate($_POST, [
    'email' => [
    	'required', 'email',
    	$validator('unique')->table('users')->column('email')->except('[email protected]')
    ]
]);

Implicit Rule

An implicit rule is a rule that if it's invalid, the next rules will be ignored. For example, if the attribute didn't pass required* rules, the next rules will be invalid. To prevent unnecessary validation and error messages, we make required* rules to be implicit.

To make your custom rule implicit, you can make $implicit property value to be true. For example:

<?php
use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rule;

class YourCustomRule extends Rule
{
    protected bool $implicit = true;
}

Modify Value

In some cases, you may want your custom rule to be able to modify the attribute value like the default/defaults rule. In the current and next rule checks, your modified value will be used.

To do this, you should implement Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rules\Contracts\ModifyValue and create the method modifyValue(mixed $value) on your custom rule class.

For example:

<?php

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rule;
use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rules\Contracts\ModifyValue;

class YourCustomRule extends Rule implements ModifyValue
{
    public function modifyValue(mixed $value): mixed
    {
        // Do something with $value

        return $value;
    }
}

Before Validation Hook

You may want to do some preparation before running the validation. For example, the uploaded_file rule will resolve the attribute value that comes from $_FILES (undesirable) array structure to be a well-organized array.

To do this, you should implement Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rules\Contracts\BeforeValidate and create the method beforeValidate() on your custom rule class.

For example:

<?php

use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rule;
use Somnambulist\Components\Validation\Rules\Contracts\BeforeValidate;

class YourCustomRule extends Rule implements BeforeValidate
{
    public function beforeValidate(): void
    {
        $attribute = $this->getAttribute();
        $validation = $this->validation;

        // Do something with $attribute and $validation
        // For example change attribute value
        $validation->setValue($attribute->getKey(), "your custom value");
    }
}

Tests

PHPUnit 9+ is used for testing. Run tests via vendor/bin/phpunit.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Fork the repository and make a PR back. Please ensure that your code is formatted using PSR-12 coding standards, and all PHP files include declare(strict_types=1); on the opening <?php tag. If in doubt about any code-style convention, look at the existing files and follow along.

This library currently targets PHP 8.0.X and 8.1+. If using 8.1 functions, ensure a suitable fallback is used. Note that external libraries should not be added to this project.

If adding new functionality ensure the README.md file is updated with your changes and include appropriate tests and if possible, language translations with English as the primary requirement.

For bug fixes a failing case must be included in a test. Changes without appropriate tests or that cannot be replicated may be rejected.