Validation

Validation
     Provided Rules
     Adding Rules
     Binding Variables
     Adding Errors
     Example
A Complete Example

This page needs to be reviewed for accuracy by the development team. Better examples would be helpful.

Validation can be performed on any array using the Validation class. Labels and rules can be attached to a Validation object by the array key, called a "field name".

labels
A label is a human-readable version of the field name.
rules
A rule is a callback or closure used to decide whether or not to add an error to a field

Note that any valid PHP callback can be used as a rule.

Using TRUE as the field name when adding a rule will be applied to all named fields.

Creating a validation object is done using the Validation::factory method:

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$object = Validation::factory($array);

The $object object will be used for the rest of this tutorial. This tutorial will show you how to validate the registration of a new user.

Provided Rules

Kohana provides a set of useful rules in the Valid class:

Rule name Function
Valid::not_empty Value must be a non-empty value
Valid::regex Match the value against a regular expression
Valid::min_length Minimum number of characters for value
Valid::max_length Maximum number of characters for value
Valid::exact_length Value must be an exact number of characters
Valid::email An email address is required
Valid::email_domain Check that the domain of the email exists
Valid::url Value must be a URL
Valid::ip Value must be an IP address
Valid::phone Value must be a phone number
Valid::credit_card Require a credit card number
Valid::date Value must be a date (and time)
Valid::alpha Only alpha characters allowed
Valid::alpha_dash Only alpha and hyphens allowed
Valid::alpha_numeric Only alpha and numbers allowed
Valid::digit Value must be an integer digit
Valid::decimal Value must be a decimal or float value
Valid::numeric Only numeric characters allowed
Valid::range Value must be within a range
Valid::color Value must be a valid HEX color
Valid::matches Value matches another field value

Adding Rules

All validation rules are defined as a field name, a method, a function (using the PHP callback syntax) or closure, and an array of parameters:

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$object->rule($field, $callback, array($parameter1, $parameter2));

If no parameters are specified, the field value will be passed to the callback. The following two rules are equivalent:

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$object->rule($field, 'not_empty');
$object->rule($field, 'not_empty', array(':value'));

Rules defined in the Valid class can be added by using the method name alone. The following three rules are equivalent:

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$object->rule('number', 'phone');
$object->rule('number', array('Valid', 'phone'));
$object->rule('number', 'Valid::phone');

Binding Variables

The Validation class allows you to bind variables to certain strings so that they can be used when defining rules. Variables are bound by calling the Validation::bind method.

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$object->bind(':model', $user_model);
// Future code will be able to use :model to reference the object
$object->rule('username', 'some_rule', array(':model'));

By default, the validation object will automatically bind the following values for you to use as rule parameters:

  • :validation - references the validation object
  • :field - references the field name the rule is for
  • :value - references the value of the field the rule is for

Adding Errors

The Validation class will add an error for a field if any of the rules associated to it return FALSE. This allows many built in PHP functions to be used as rules, like in_array.

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$object->rule('color', 'in_array', array(':value', array('red', 'green', 'blue')));

Rules added to empty fields will run, but returning FALSE will not automatically add an error for the field. In order for a rule to affect empty fields, you must add the error manually by calling the Validation::error method. In order to do this, you must pass the validation object to the rule.

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$object->rule($field, 'the_rule', array(':validation', ':field'));
 
public function the_rule($validation, $field)
{
    if (something went wrong)
    {
        $validation->error($field, 'the_rule');
    }
}

not_empty and matches are the only rules that will run on empty fields and add errors by returning FALSE.

Example

To start our example, we will perform validation on the HTTP POST data of the current request that contains user registration information:

In Kohana controllers, we access $this->request->post() instead of $_POST for better request isolation.

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$object = Validation::factory($this->request->post());

Next we need to process the POST'ed information using Validation. To start, we need to add some rules:

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$object
    ->rule('username', 'not_empty')
    ->rule('username', 'regex', array(':value', '/^[a-z_.]++$/iD'))
    ->rule('password', 'not_empty')
    ->rule('password', 'min_length', array(':value', '6'))
    ->rule('confirm',  'matches', array(':validation', 'confirm', 'password'))
    ->rule('use_ssl', 'not_empty');

Any existing PHP function can also be used a rule. For instance, if we want to check if the user entered a proper value for the SSL question:

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$object->rule('use_ssl', 'in_array', array(':value', array('yes', 'no')));

Note that all array parameters must still be wrapped in an array! Without the wrapping array, in_array would be called as in_array($value, 'yes', 'no'), which would result in a PHP error.

Any custom rules can be added using a [PHP callback](http://php.net/manual/language.pseudo-types.php#language.types.callback]:

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$object->rule('username', 'User_Model::unique_username');

The method User_Model::unique_username() would be defined similar to:

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public static function unique_username($username)
{
    // Check if the username already exists in the database
    return ! DB::select(array(DB::expr('COUNT(username)'), 'total'))
        ->from('users')
        ->where('username', '=', $username)
        ->execute()
        ->get('total');
}

Custom rules allow many additional checks to be reused for multiple purposes. These methods will almost always exist in a model, but may be defined in any class.

A Complete Example

First, we need a View that contains the HTML form, which will be placed in application/views/user/register.php:

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<?php echo Form::open() ?>
<?php if ($errors): ?>
<p class="message">Some errors were encountered, please check the details you entered.</p>
<ul class="errors">
<?php foreach ($errors as $message): ?>
    <li><?php echo $message ?></li>
<?php endforeach ?>
<?php endif ?>
 
<dl>
    <dt><?php echo Form::label('username', 'Username') ?></dt>
    <dd><?php echo Form::input('username', $post['username']) ?></dd>
 
    <dt><?php echo Form::label('password', 'Password') ?></dt>
    <dd><?php echo Form::password('password') ?></dd>
    <dd class="help">Passwords must be at least 6 characters long.</dd>
    <dt><?php echo Form::label('confirm', 'Confirm Password') ?></dt>
    <dd><?php echo Form::password('confirm') ?></dd>
 
    <dt><?php echo Form::label('use_ssl', 'Use extra security?') ?></dt>
    <dd><?php echo Form::select('use_ssl', array('yes' => 'Always', 'no' => 'Only when necessary'), $post['use_ssl']) ?></dd>
    <dd class="help">For security, SSL is always used when making payments.</dd>
</dl>
 
<?php echo Form::submit(NULL, 'Sign Up') ?>
<?php echo Form::close() ?>

This example uses the Form helper extensively. Using Form instead of writing HTML ensures that all of the form inputs will properly handle input that includes HTML characters. If you prefer to write the HTML yourself, be sure to use HTML::chars to escape user input.

Next, we need a controller and action to process the registration, which will be placed in application/classes/controller/user.php:

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class Controller_User extends Controller {
 
    public function action_register()
    {
        $user = Model::factory('user');
 
        $validation = Validation::factory($this->request->post())
            ->rule('username', 'not_empty')
            ->rule('username', 'regex', array(':value', '/^[a-z_.]++$/iD'))
            ->rule('username', array($user, 'unique_username'))
 
            ->rule('password', 'not_empty')
            ->rule('password', 'min_length', array(':value', 6))
            ->rule('confirm',  'matches', array(':validation', ':field', 'password'))
 
            ->rule('use_ssl', 'not_empty')
            ->rule('use_ssl', 'in_array', array(':value', array('yes', 'no')));
 
        if ($validation->check())
        {
            // Data has been validated, register the user
            $user->register($this->request->post());
 
            // Always redirect after a successful POST to prevent refresh warnings
            $this->request->redirect('user/profile');
        }
 
        // Validation failed, collect the errors
        $errors = $validation->errors('user');
 
        // Display the registration form
        $this->response->body(View::factory('user/register'))
            ->bind('post', $this->request->post())
            ->bind('errors', $errors);
    }
 
}

We will also need a user model, which will be placed in application/classes/model/user.php:

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class Model_User extends Model {
 
    public function register($array)
    {
        // Create a new user record in the database
        $id = DB::insert(array_keys($array))
            ->values($array)
            ->execute();
 
        // Save the new user id to a cookie
        cookie::set('user', $id);
 
        return $id;
    }
 
}

That is it, we have a complete user registration example that properly checks user input!