Laravel 4 , adding custom validation using extend - php

Question

I am trying to use the Extend function that the validation offer,
Here is what I have:
1). HomeController.php :
$rules = array(
'first_name'=>'required|regex:/^[a-z ,."-]+$/i|min:2',
'last_name'=>'required|regex:/^[a-z ,."-]+$/i|min:2',
'gender'=>'required|alpha|gendercheck',
'email'=>'required|email|unique:users,email,'.Input::get('id').',id',
'zip'=>'required|zipcheck|max:10',
);
2). Then to use the extend method I add it to routes.php:
Validator::extend('zipcheck', function($field,$value,$parameters){
// List of regular expressions to use, if a custom one isn't specified.
$countryRegs = array(
"US"=>"/^[\d]{5}(-[\d]{4})?$/",
"GB"=>"/^(GIR|[A-Z]\d[A-Z\d]??|[A-Z]{2}\d[A-Z\d]??)[ ]??(\d[A-Z]{2})$/",
"DE"=>"/\b((?:0[1-46-9]\d{3})|(?:[1-357-9]\d{4})|(?:[4][0-24-9]\d{3})|(?:[6][013-9]\d{3}))\b/",
"CA"=>"/^([ABCEGHJKLMNPRSTVXY]\d[ABCEGHJKLMNPRSTVWXYZ])\ {0,1}(\d[ABCEGHJKLMNPRSTVWXYZ]\d)$/",
"FR"=>"/^(F-)?((2[A|B])|[0-9]{2})[0-9]{3}$/",
"IT"=>"/^(V-|I-)?[0-9]{5}$/",
"AU"=>"/^(0[289][0-9]{2})|([1345689][0-9]{3})|(2[0-8][0-9]{2})|(290[0-9])|(291[0-4])|(7[0-4][0-9]{2})|(7[8-9][0-9]{2})$/",
"NL"=>"/^[1-9][0-9]{3}\s?([a-zA-Z]{2})?$/",
"ES"=>"/^([1-9]{2}|[0-9][1-9]|[1-9][0-9])[0-9]{3}$/",
"DK"=>"/^([D-d][K-k])?( |-)?[1-9]{1}[0-9]{3}$/",
"SE"=>"/^(s-|S-){0,1}[0-9]{3}\s?[0-9]{2}$/",
"BE"=>"/^[1-9]{1}[0-9]{3}$/"
);
// get country submitted..
$country = Input::get('country');
// check country if in the array..
if (key_exists($country , $countryRegs))
return preg_match($countryRegs[$country], $value);
else // other countries make sure no special characters in there
return preg_match('/^[a-z0-9- ]+$/i' , $value);
});
The problem is I want to keep my code organized and I dont want to add the validation extend to my routes.php
What is the best way where I can have those in its own class and call those from my HomeController and still it will work?
Thanks

Answer 1

There are lots of ways to do this. The way I like is make a file /app/validators.php (So it is in the same location as routes.php and filters.php)
Then go to app/start/global.php and add this at the bottom after the filters require:
require app_path().'/validators.php';
You can now declare all your extended validators in the validators.php file -and Laravel will use them.

Answer 2

There are several ways to do. Personally I like to extends validation by a ValidationService (I think it is much cleaner).
1) We assume you use PSR-4 to load you own company directory in composer.json:
{
"autoload": {
"psr-4": {
"Acme\\": "app/Acme"
}
...
},
}
You have to run composer dumpautoload.
2) Create your validation service provider:
app/Acme/Extension/Validation/ValidationServiceProvider.php
<?php
namespace Acme\Extension\Validation;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
class ValidationServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider {
public function register() {
}
public function boot() {
$this->app->validator->resolver(function($translator, $data, $rules, $messages) {
return new CustomValidator($translator, $data, $rules, $messages);
});
}
}
3) Register your service provider in app/config/app.php for autoloading:
<?php
return array(
'providers' => array(
...
'Acme\Extension\Validation\ValidationServiceProvider',
),
);
4) Create your custom validation rule(s):
app/Acme/Extension/Validation/CustomValidator.php
<?php
namespace Acme\Extension\Validation;
use Illuminate\Validation\Validator as IlluminateValidator;
class CustomValidator extends IlluminateValidator {
public function validateAlphaNumSpace($attribute, $value) {
return preg_match('/^([a-z\x20])+$/i', $value);
}
public function validateZip($attribute, $value, $parameters) {
...
}
}
5) You are ready to use your custom rule(s). For example if I want to use my AlphaNumSpace rule (useful in many cases because original AlphaNum rule doesn't allow space!):
$rules = [
'name' => 'required|alpha_num_space',
'zipcode' => 'required|zip',
];