Laravel 4 Validation - php

Question

I use the following rules for validation on creating a new user:
protected $rules= [
'name' => 'required',
'email' => [
'required',
'unique:user',
'email'
]
];
When updating an existing user I use the same ruleset as shown above
but don't want a validation error if the user didn't change his email at all.
I currently resolve this by using the following:
if (!User::changed('email')) {
unset($user->email);
}
It feels like a dirty workaround to me so I was wondering if there are better alternatives.
Also note that the changed method is something I wrote myself. Does anyone know if there
is a native Laravel 4 method for checking whether a model property has changed?
Thanks!

Answer 1

The unique validation rule allows to ignore a given ID, which in your case is the ID of the data set you are updating.
'email' => 'unique:users,email_address,10'
http://four.laravel.com/docs/validation#rule-unique

Answer 2

One approach is to create a validation function in the model and call it with the controller passing in the input, scenario and id (to ignore).
public function validate($input, $scenario, $id = null)
{
$rules = [];
switch($scenario)
{
case 'store':
$rules = [
'name' => 'required|min:5|unique:users',
'email' => 'required|email|unique:users',
'password' => 'required|min:4|confirmed'
];
break;
case 'update';
$rules = [
'name' => 'required|min:5|unique:users' .',name,' . $id,
'email' => 'required|email|unique:users' .',email,' . $id,
'password' => 'min:4|confirmed'
];
break;
}
return Validator::make($input, $rules);
}
Then in the controller:
$input = Input::all();
$validation = $user->validate($input, 'update', $user->id);
if ($validation->fails())
{
// Do stuff
}
else
{
// Validation passes
// Do other stuff
}
As others mentioned, the 3rd parameter of the unique rule specifies an id to ignore. You can add other cases, such as 'login' to reuse the validation function.
Alternatively, Jeffrey Way at Tuts Premium has a great series of lessons in "What's New In Laravel 4" which includes a couple of other approaches to handling validation using services and listeners.

Answer 3

See the documentation on http://four.laravel.com/docs/validation#rule-unique
You can exclude the users own id
protected $rules= [
'name' => 'required',
'email' => [
'required',
'unique:user,email,THE_USERS_USER_ID',
'email'
]
];

Answer 4

As of 2014-01-14, you can use sometimes attribute, I believe Taylor added them 2 days ago to Laravel 4.1
$v = Validator::make($data, array(
'email' => 'sometimes|required|email',
));
sometimes only validate input if it exists. this may or may not suit your exact scenario, if you don't have a default value for insert.
http://laravel.com/docs/validation#conditionally-adding-rules

Answer 5

I handle this sort of thing in my validator function. My validators array is setup as a class variable. I then do something like this:
public function validate()
{
//exclude the current user id from 'unqiue' validators
if( $this->id > 0 )
{
$usernameUnique = 'unique:users,username,'.$this->id;
$emailUnique = 'unique:users,email,'.$this->id;
$apiUnique = 'unique:users,api_key,'.$this->id;
}
else
{
$usernameUnique = 'unique:users,username';
$emailUnique = 'unique:users,email';
$apiUnique = 'unique:users,api_key';
}
$this->validators['username'] = array('required', 'max:32', $usernameUnique);
$this->validators['email'] = array('required', 'max:32', $emailUnique);
$this->validators['api_key'] = array('required', 'max:32', $apiUnique);
$val = Validator::make($this->attributes, $this->validators);
if ($val->fails())
{
throw new ValidationException($val);
}
}

Answer 6

I have solved this by having different rules for update and create on models that need to do so, like Users.
I have a Model class that extends Eloquent, where I define the validation, and then all child models that extend the Model can have have both the $rules and $update_rules defined. If you define only $rules, it will be used both for create and update.
class Model extends Eloquent {
protected $errors;
protected static $rules = array();
protected $validator;
public function __construct(array $attributes = array(), Validator $validator = null) {
parent::__construct($attributes);
$this->validator = $validator ?: \App::make('validator');
}
protected static function boot() {
parent::boot();
# call validatie when createing
static::creating(function($model) {
return $model->validate();
});
# call validatie when updating with $is_update = true param
static::updating(function($model) {
return $model->validate(true);
});
}
public function validate($is_update = false) {
# if we have $update_rules defined in the child model, and save is an update
if ($is_update and isset(static::$update_rules)) {
$v = $this->validator->make($this->attributes, static::$update_rules);
}
else {
$v = $this->validator->make($this->attributes, static::$rules);
}
if ($v->passes()) {
return true;
}
$this->setErrors($v->messages());
return false;
}
protected function setErrors($errors) {
$this->errors = $errors;
}
public function getErrors() {
return $this->errors;
}
public function hasErrors() {
return ! empty($this->errors);
}
}