I am making an application where users can upload questions, and questions can have multiple correct answers. The correct answers have names of the form correctAnswer1 correctAnswer2 etc.
I want to know how to require all submitted fields matching this pattern; I was thinking of using something analogous to
/correctAnswer[0-9]/ => 'required'
I'm not sure of the logic behind your requirement, kinda seems you should do things in a different manner, but again I do not know how your app works so I can't be a judge of that. So if the user can add new correct answers fields on the form, and you wan't them to not be empty it makes some sense.
You can't have a regex in the rule name but you can do the following:
$rules = [
// your other rules
];
$correctAnswers = preg_grep( '/^correctAnswer[1-9]{1}$/', array_keys($this->all()));
// use $this->all() when in Http\Requests\YourRequest
// if you are not using the request method of validation (you validate in controller)
// simply replace $this->all() with $request->all() or Input::all().
foreach ($correctAnswers as $correctAnswer) {
$rules[$correctAnswer] = 'required';
}
return $rules;
This assumes you are using the Laravel 5, Http\Requests to validate your input. If you are doin'g the validation elsewhere (in controller for example), just replace $this->all() with $request->all() or Input::all(). I can't give the exact choice as I do not know exactly how you do the validation and what version of laravel you use.
PS: This will match only correctAnswer1 to correctAnswer9. If you want more just play with the [0-9]{1} part of the regex.
Related
I have a template that allows adding new lines. Example: I want to add multiple products at once to a store, so I can add them all at once, through those lines that replicate themselves. The problem is that I need to validate these fields, they are all mandatory. I'm implementing so that I can walk through each one and leave it compulsory. However, I came across another problem, Laravel is telling me that my field is empty, but it is not. I would like to know how I can solve it, thank you in advance.
Here is my code to FormRequest
public function rules()
{
$rules = [];
foreach($_POST['esp'] as $key => $esp){
$name_field = "esp[" . $key . "]" . "[esprqe]"; //name of my field is complicated even as it is time based
$rules[$name_field] = 'required';
}
return $rules;
}
My template is big, no need to show.
message I receive: esp[1553533952015][esprqe]: ["The esp[1553533952015][esprqe] field is required."]
My input is not empty, I do not know what the problem is
You state the name of your field 'esprqe' is time based and complicated. This is likely the cause of your problem.
The esp['.$key.'] field is probably fine, as this field is transferred from your form. However, the value that goes into esprqe, if that is being generated in your server side code above (I don't know, you haven't provided how this field is generated), and if the rules are looking for that field to match a time-based generated field on the form... those values won't match and you will have a non-value coming into your method above.
This would very likely generate a message
["The esp[1553533952015][esprqe] field is required."]
If this is your issue, you can test by first creating a simple numbered index for the esprqe field that will be matched on both form and method. If this succeeds, you can then increase the complexity using a common generator so that the rules section knows exactly what the name of the field is. Time can't be common between form creation and rules creation - thus perhaps the reason for the failure.
You need use "dot notation" to validate attributes within an array.
$name_field = "esp.$key.esprqe";
Laravel Docs: validating arrays
In my controllers that Gii creates it is common to see the following:
if($model->load(Yii::$app->request->post()) && $model->save()){
//.....do something such as redirect after save....//
}else
{
//.....render the form in initial state.....//
}
This works to test whether a POST is sent from my form && the model that I am specifying has saved the posted information (as I understand it).
I've done this similarly in controllers that I have created myself but in some situations this conditional gets bypassed because one or both of these conditions is failing and the form simply gets rendered in the initial state after I have submitted the form and I can see the POST going over the network.
Can someone explain why this conditional would fail? I believe the problem is with the 'Yii::$app->request->post()' because I have removed the '$model->save()' piece to test and it still bypasses the conditional.
Example code where it fails in my controller:
public function actionFreqopts()
{
$join = new FreqSubtypeJoin();
$options = new Frequency();
$model = new CreateCrystal();
if ($model->load(Yii::$app->request->post()) && $model->save()) {
$model->insertFreqopts();
return $this->redirect(['fieldmap', 'id' => $join->id]);
} else {
return $this->render('freqopts', ['join' => $join, 'options' => $options]);
}
}
My initial thought was that I'm not specifying the correct "$model" in that I'm trying to save the posted data to FreqSubtypeJoin() in this case and the $model is CreateCrystal(); however, even when I change the model in this conditional it still fails. It would be helpful if someone could briefly explain what the method 'load' is actually doing in layman's terms if possible.
The load() method of Model class is basically populating the model with data from the user, e.g. a post query.
To do this it firstly loads your array of data in a form that matches how Yii stores your record. It assumes that the data you are trying to load is in the form
_POST['Model name']['attribute name']
This is the first thing to check, and, as long as your _POST data is actually getting to the controller, is often where load() fails, especially if you've set your own field names in the form. This is why if you change the model, the model will not load.
It then check to see what attributes can be massively assigned. This just means whether the attributes can be assigned en-mass, like in the $model->load() way, or whether they have to be set one at a time, like in
$model->title = "Some title";
To decide whether or not an attribute can be massively assigned, Yii looks at your validation rules and your scenarios. It doesn't validate them yet, but if there is a validation rule present for that attribute, in that scenario, then it assumes it can be massively assigned.
So, the next things to check is scenarios. If you've not set any, or haven't used them, then there should be no problem here. Yii will use the default scenario which contains all the attributes that you have validation rules for. If you have used scenarios, then Yii will only allow you to load the attributes that you have declared in your scenario.
The next thing to check is your validation rules. Yii will only allow you to massively assign attributes that have associated rules.
These last two will not usually cause load() to fail, you will just get an incomplete model, so if your model is not loading then I'd suggest looking at the way the data is being submitted from the form and check the array of _POST data being sent. Make sure it has the form I suggested above.
I hope this helps!
I am trying to register a custom validation rule but it does not seem to work. I need either of 2 fields to be filled in. One is a URL(link) field and other is a File input(file_upload).
Here is my custom validation:
Validator::register('file_check', function($attribute, $value, $parameters) {
if (!trim($value) == "" || array_get(Input::file($parameters[0]), 'tmp_name')) {
return true;
}
return false;
});
$messages = array(
'file_check' => 'Please upload a file or provide a link to files.',
);
$rules = array(
'link' => 'url|file_check:file_upload',
'file_upload' => 'mimes:jpg,jpeg,gif,png,psd,ai,bmp,xls,xlsx,doc,docx,zip,rar,7z,txt,pdf'
);
$validation = Validator::make(Input::all(), $rules, $messages);
if ($validation - > fails()) {
return Redirect::to('page') - > with_errors($validation - > errors) - > with_input();
}
Need help :)
EDITED
Also, I just noticed that the validation rule should accept "PSD" files but when I try to upload a PSD file it redirects with the error "Invalid file type".
I am maybe late in party but may be somebody will find it useful, in case you need to create implicit rule which will be called even if field is not present in Input (like required,required_if....) use
Validator::extendImplicit( 'validator_name', function($attribute, $value, $parameters)
{
});
Check this out
I was just struggling with this myself! It turns out that except when a few specific rules are applied to them, Laravel doesn't pass empty fields through the Validator at all. So a custom either-this-or-that rule can't work, since at least one of the two fields is likely to not be visible to it.
You can get around this by moving from the registering-a-new-rule approach to the alternate extend-the-Validator-class approach. Your new class will inherit all the methods of the standard Validator, including a method called "implicit" (you can find the original on line 215 of the standard Validator class), which specifies a whitelist of rules that Laravel should pass fields along to even if they are empty. Add your new rule to that list and you should be good to go.
Jason is right, but there is one thing that can be confusing.
Laravel's 'registering a new rule' approach uses the syntax 'Validator::extend(...'. As described elsewhere, this is convenient when you want to customize in a special situation. However, if you want to add a number of reusable rules, then you probably want to use the extend-the-Validator-class approach. In that case, IF you have a rule conditionally requires something, you need to override the existing implicitRules array with a new one adding your rule.
If the first rules you add don't conditionally require, you will think you have it nailed, then you will spend hours trying to figure out why your new 'RequireWhenBlaBla...' rule is invisible.
I've done quite a few Lithium tutorials (links below in case they help someone else, and also to show I've done my homework:) and I understand the most basic parts of creating models, views, controllers and using MVC to create a DB record based on form input.
However, I'm new to MVC for webapps and Lithium, and I'm not sure how I should write my code in more complicated situations. This is a general question, but two specific validation questions that I have are:
How should I validate date data submitted from the form?
How should I check that the two user email fields have the same value?
I would be very grateful for any help with these questions, and concrete examples like this will also really help me understand how to do good MVC coding in other situations as well!
Date entry - validating data split across multiple form inputs
For UI reasons, the sign up form asks users to enter their DOB in three fields:
<?=$this->form->field('birthday', array('type' => 'select', 'list' => array(/*...*/))); ?>
<?=$this->form->field('birthmonth', array('type' => 'select', 'list' => array(/*...*/))); ?>
<?=$this->form->field('birthyear', array('type' => 'select', 'list' => array(/*...*/))); ?>
What is the best way to validate this server-side? I think I should take advantage of the automagic validation, but I'm not sure of the best way do that for a set of variables that aren't really part of the Model. E.g.:
Should I post-process the $this->request->data in UsersController? E.g. modify $this->request->data inside UsersController before passing it to Users::create.
Should I pull the form fields out of $this->request->data and use a static call to Validator::isDate inside UsersController?
Is there a way to write a validation rule in the model for combinations of form variables that aren't part of the model?
should I override Users::create and do all the extra validation and post-processing there?
All of these seem like they could work, although some seem a little bit ugly and I don't know which ones could cause major problems for me in the future.
[EDIT: Closely related to this is the problem of combining the three form fields into a single field to be saved in the model]
Email entry - checking two form fields are identical, but only storing one
For common sense/common practice, the sign up form asks users to specify their email address twice:
<?=$this->form->field('email_address'); ?>
<?=$this->form->field('verify_email_address'); ?>
How can I write an automagic validation rule that checks these two form fields have the same value, but only saves email_address to the database?
This feels like it's pretty much the same question as the above one because the list of possible answers that I can think of is the same - so I'm submitting this as one question, but I'd really appreciate your help with both parts, as I think the solution to this one is going to be subtle and different and equally enlightening!
[EDIT: Closely related to this is the problem of not storing verify_email_address into my model and DB]
Some background reading on Lithium
I've read others, but these three tutorials got me to where I am with users and sign up forms now...
Blog tutorial
Extended blog tutorial
MySQL blog tutorial
Some other StackOverflow questions on closely related topics (but not answering it and also not Lithium-specific)
One answer to this question suggests creating a separate controller (and model and...?) - it doesn't feel very "Lithium" to me, and I'm worried it could be fragile/easily buggy as well
This wonderful story convinced me I was right to be worried about putting it in the controller, but I'm not sure what a good solution would be
This one on views makes me think I should put it in the model somehow, but I don't know the best way to do this in Lithium (see my bulleted list under Date Entry above)
And this Scribd presentation asked the question I'm hoping to answer on the last page... whereupon it stopped without answering it!
NB: CakePHP-style answers are fine too. I don't know it, but it's similar and I'm sure I can translate from it if I need to!
I'd recommend doing this in the Model rather than the Controller - that way it happens no matter where you do the save from.
For the date field issue, in your model, override the save() method and handle converting the multiple fields in the data to one date field before calling parent::save to do the actual saving. Any advanced manipulation can happen there.
The technique described in your comment of using a hidden form field to get error messages to display sounds pretty good.
For comparing that two email fields are equal, I'd recommend defining a custom validator. You can do this in your bootstrap using Validator::add.
use lithium\util\Validator;
use InvalidArgumentException;
Validator::add('match', function($value, $format = null, array $options = array()) {
$options += array(
'against' => '',
'values' => array()
);
extract($options);
if (array_key_exists($against, $values)) {
return $values[$against] == $value;
}
return false;
});
Then in your model:
public $validates = array(
"email" => array(
"match",
"message" => "Please re-type your email address.",
"against" => "email2"
)
);
Edit: Per the comments, here's a way to do custom rule validation in a controller:
public function save() {
$entity = MyModel::create($this->request->data);
$rules = array(
"email" => array(
"match",
"message" => "Please re-type your email address.",
"against" => "email2"
)
);
if (!$entity->validates($rules)) {
return compact('entity');
}
// if your model defines a `$_schema` and sets `$_meta = array('locked' => true)`
// then any fields not in the schema will not be saved to the db
// here's another way using the `'whitelist'` param
$blacklist = array('email2', 'some', 'other', 'fields');
$whitelist = array_keys($entity->data());
$whitelist = array_diff($whitelist, $blacklist);
if ($entity->save(null, compact('whitelist'))) {
$this->redirect(
array("Controller::view", "args" => array($entity->_id)),
array('exit' => true)
);
}
return compact('entity');
}
An advantage of setting the data to the entity is that it will be automatically prefilled in your form if there's a validation error.
I have only recently started web programming and I am pretty much amazed that although I am using a validation library, I still get 20-30 lines of code for validation alone, not counting error messages and callback functions. I am using the Kohana MVC framework and I was wondering if there was any way I can shorten my validation codes. I tried to think of the following
putting validation codes in my model (which is quite had for a noob like me).
creating a really small library to validate entries(something that hooks to the validation class, thus allowing me to call the library for repetitive procedures like user registration, editing and stuff)
Or are there any better and more efficient ways?
I would highly recommend working on including the validation in the model. Once you are able to do one, any others you create will be much easier. Plus if you have multiple controllers trying to save that data, you will not need to recode the validation. The Kohana docs contain some examples for integrating the validation library and ORM, you should start there.
I use Zend_Validate with Zend_Forms for validation in which the validation code is in the forms init method. All I have to do is pass an array of validators for each element and than run ..
$form->isValid($data);
...outside of the form to validate the data.
The validation array is easily more than 30 lines because I seperate each array entry with a newline. But i guess you will have that if you defining fine grained validation rules for each element right.
And its really easy to define new Validators in Zend.
edit: i discovered a framework that extends the Zend Framework which allows domain objects to contain its own validation. Its called Xyster framework but I could not get it to work on the first try so I haven't tried after that.
Here's my strategy for dealing with validation code. I suppose by 'validation library', you mean those which just make sure an email is an email, telephone numbers are numerical, and are not business rules in nature.
The idea is to have each business rule code as a functor - if it is PHP, you can get by just using a string to define the function; for other languages, you may have to use the strategy pattern. Define an interface for the functor (not necessary for PHP) and dump it into an array.
Run through the array which will return success, error and an error-code to a buffer. At the end, examine the error buffer and determine which validation has failed. Use it to customise the view.
Here's an example
$checkUniqueUserName = new CheckUniqueUserName();
$checkEmailNotUsed = new EmailNotUsed();
$validator = array();
$validator[$checkUniqueUserName->name()] = $checkUniqueUserName;
$validator[$checkEmailNotUsed->name()] = $checkEmailNotUsed;
$results = array();
foreach ($validator as $v)
{
$result[$v->getValidatorName()] = $v->execute($userInfo);
}
class CheckUniqueUserName()
{
public function execute($userInfo)
{
// SQL blah blah blah
if ($bNameUnique)
return array ('success' => 1)
else
return array ('success' => 0, 'error' => "$name is in used", 'error_code' => 'duplicate_name);
}
}
At the end, you will have a results array, each filled with a validation process, and you know which has failed, and which has not. This can then be passed to the client-side for further processing, like highlighting the failed fields. The error_code an be used to look up the proper error message and formatting applied to it.
I am not really sure about what you mean by call-backs though.