![Our code, our rules
Implement our own custom rules for user registration:
// UserValidator class
class UserValidator extends Validator
{
public function register()
{
$this->rules = [
'email' => ['required', 'email'],
'password' => ['required']
];
$this->validate();
}
}](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/validationforapis-140509075656-phpapp02/85/Validation-for-APIs-in-Laravel-4-16-320.jpg)
![Validate!
Within our controller, load up our validator and validate the input.
// UserController
public function postRegister()
{
$input = Input::get();
App::make('UserValidator', [$input])->register();
return User::create($input);
}](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/validationforapis-140509075656-phpapp02/85/Validation-for-APIs-in-Laravel-4-17-320.jpg)
![Laravel 4 error handling
Create an error handler that is specific to validation exceptions:
App::error(function(ValidateException $exception)
{
$errorResponse = [
'message' => $exception->getMessage(),
'errors' => $exception->getErrors()
];
return Response::json($errorResponse, 422); // Unprocessable entity
});](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/validationforapis-140509075656-phpapp02/85/Validation-for-APIs-in-Laravel-4-19-320.jpg)
Validation for APIs in Laravel 4
- 1. Validation for APIs Good validation practises. API focused. Kirk Bushell
- 2. Who the hell am I? • Technical Lead for Tectonic Digital (www.tectonic.com.au) • Software architect for http://awardforce.com • Technical writer (see: http://kirkbushell.me) • Open source contributor (Laravel 3/4, various other projects) • http://github.com/kirkbushell • Also known as Oddman on IRC, forums.etc. • @kirkbushell
- 3. Disclaimers
- 4. This is my first talk.
- 5. Sorry.
- 6. In addition... • I'll assume you know a couple of things about validation and • You know or at least understand some of the concepts of Laravel 4, including: • Dependency injection and • The IoC feature • I start work at 4.30am (apologies if I'm not quite with it)
- 7. Why? • There's been a lot of talk in the community the last 6 months about validation • How we can do it well - lots of different opinions • I have a pretty strong opinion on this matter
- 8. What we're going to cover • A brief history of MVC, the repository pattern and why validation should be its own domain • Implementing validation within an API context • Using exceptions for greater readability • Catching exceptions to generate API responses automagically • The end result - cleaner code
- 9. What I'm not going to talk about • RESTful APIs • The view layer
- 10. A brief history of everything MVC. • A blessing to web development (and software development in general) • Fat controllers, skinny models • Skinny controllers, fat models • Validation tied up in models (along with everything else) • We still seem to be stuck on the previous point.
- 11. Introducing.. the repository pattern? • Helped clean up models • Query building and object management • So, what about validation?
- 12. Validate all the things! • Validation within models breaks the single responsibility principle • Validation in models doesn't make much sense if you're using the repository pattern • Implemented via the controller or a service (such as a user registration service)
- 14. The validate method Please read Jason Lewis' article: http://jasonlewis.me/article/laravel- advanced-validation // Validate function from article protected function validate() { $this->validator = Validator::make($this->input, $this->rules); if ($this->validator->fails()) { throw new ValidateException($this->validator); } }
- 15. ValidateException class ValidateException extends Exception { protected $validator; public function __construct(Validator $validator) { $this->message = 'Validation has failed, or something.'; $this->validator = $validator; } public function getErrors() { return $this->validator->messages(); } }
- 16. Our code, our rules Implement our own custom rules for user registration: // UserValidator class class UserValidator extends Validator { public function register() { $this->rules = [ 'email' => ['required', 'email'], 'password' => ['required'] ]; $this->validate(); } }
- 17. Validate! Within our controller, load up our validator and validate the input. // UserController public function postRegister() { $input = Input::get(); App::make('UserValidator', [$input])->register(); return User::create($input); }
- 18. Now what? • When validation fails it will throw an exception: if ($this->validator->fails()) { throw new ValidateException($this->validator); } • We need to catch that exception and return a nice status code and error message, along with any validation errors. • Laravel 4 provides an excellent way of managing this.
- 19. Laravel 4 error handling Create an error handler that is specific to validation exceptions: App::error(function(ValidateException $exception) { $errorResponse = [ 'message' => $exception->getMessage(), 'errors' => $exception->getErrors() ]; return Response::json($errorResponse, 422); // Unprocessable entity });
- 20. In conclusion • Complex validation should be in its own domain • Helps to clean up our code, making it more readable • Let the framework handle exceptions for you! • Best for large applications (not so applicable to small apps)
- 21. Thank you.
- 22. You can catch me at the following online locales: • http://kirkbushell.me • http://github.com/kirkbushell • @kirkbushell