respect-validation/README.md

Respect Validation

Respect\Validation is the most awesome validation engine ever created for PHP. Featuring:

• Fluent/Chained builders
• Composite validation (nested, grouped and related rules)
• Informative, awesome exceptions
• More than 30 fully tested validators
• PHP 5.3 only
• Possible integration with Zend 2.0 and Symfony 2.0 validators

Quick Reference

Namespace import

use Respect\Validation\Validator as v;

Simple validation

v::numeric()->validate($someNumber); //returns true or false

Chained validation

//From 1 to 15 non-whitespace alphanumeric characters 
$username = 'alganet';
$validUsername = v::alnum()
                  ->noWhitespace()
                  ->length(1,15)
                  ->validate($username);

//Date between two ranges using a specific format
$someDate = new DateTime('2010-10-15');
$validDate = v::date('Y-m-d')
              ->between(new DateTime('2009-01-01'), new DateTime('2011-01-01'))
              ->validate($someDate);

Validating object attributes

$user = new \stdClass;
$user->name = 'Alexandre';
$user->birthdate = '1987-07-01';
$validUser = v::attribute('name', v::notEmpty())
           ->v::attribute('birthdate, v::date('Y-m-d'));

Validator reuse (works on nested, big validators too!)

$idValidator = v::int()->positive();
$idValidator->validate(123); //true
$idValidator->validate(456); //true
$idValidator->validate('foo'); //false
$idValidator->validate(178); //true

Cool, informative exceptions

try {
    $username = '#some%really*bad screen name';
    $validUsername = v::alnum('_')
                      ->noWhitespace()
                      ->length(1,15)
                      ->assert($username);
} catch(\InvalidArgumentException $e) {
   /* prints:
        \-None of 3 required rules passed
          |-"really messed up screen#name" does not contain only letters, digits and "_"
          |-"really messed up screen#name" contains whitespace
          \-"really messed up screen#name" length is not between 1 and 15
   */
   echo $e->getFullMessage();
}

Message finding on nested Exceptions

$user = array("id" => "some %% invalid %% id");
$post = array("user" => $user);
try {
    v::key("user", v::key("id", v::int()->positive()))->assert($post);
} catch (\InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    /* prints:
        "some %% invalid %% id" is not a positive number
    */
    echo $e->findRelated('user', 'id', 'positive')->getMainMessage();
}

Using Zend and/or Symfony validators

$validHostName = v::zend('hostname')->assert('google.com');
$validTime     = v::sf('time')->assert('22:00:01');

Cool, isn't it?

Roadmap

• Custom validators (create your own validation rules and exceptions)
• Validation message improvements (translation, contextualization)