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+--- Thread: AutoValidate v0.01 (/showthread.php?tid=10114)

AutoValidate v0.01 - El Forum - 07-18-2008

[eluser]Pygon[/eluser]
The more and more I played with Struts, the more I LOVED the idea of being able to automatically validate the input without needing to call functions, and being able to separate validation rules into files, as well as having a sort of tiered validation that allows validation at a controller or method level (or both).

As I toyed with a similar implementation for CI, I found that full automation wasn't the best solution, so I went for simplification:

NOTE: If you have not fixed index.php faux-absolute-junk it does for apppath/basepath, you will probably need to disable the security, and this hasn't exactly been tested in this way.

File: /application/libraries/Autovalidate.php
Code:
<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

class Autovalidate {
    var $CI;
    var $_validation_dir;
    var $_validation_suffix = "_validation";
    var $_validation_security = TRUE;

    function Autovalidate()
    {
        $this->CI = &get;_instance();
        if( empty($this->CI->validation) ) $this->CI->load->library('validation');
        
        $dir = $this->CI->config->item('validation_directory');
        if(empty($dir)) $dir = "validation/";
        $this->set_validation_dir($dir);
    
        $security = $this->CI->config->item('validation_security');
        if($security) $this->_validation_security = $security;
        
        $suffix = $this->CI->config->item('validation_suffix');
        if($suffix) $this->_validation_suffix = $suffix;
        
        log_message('debug', "Validation Class Initialized");
    }
    
    function set_validation_dir($dir,$append=false)
    {
        if(empty($dir)) return;
        
        $dir = str_replace('\\','/',$dir);

        $dir = $append ? realpath($this->_validation_dir . $dir) : realpath(APPPATH . $dir);
        $this->_validation_dir = str_replace('\\','/',$dir);
        
        if(empty($this->_validation_dir) || !is_dir($this->_validation_dir)){
            show_error("Validation Error: The setting for validation directory is incorrect or the directory is missing.");
        } else if($this->_validation_security && strstr($this->_validation_dir,APPPATH) === FALSE) {
            show_error("Validation Security: This validation directory is incorrect or outside the application directory.");
        }
    }
    
    function validate_input($controller, $method=null){
        //Try base controller validation
        if( $this->_load_validation($controller . $this->_validation_suffix . EXT) === FALSE ) return false;
        
        //Try method specific validation
        if( !empty($method) && $this->_load_validation($controller.'_'.$method . $this->_validation_suffix . EXT) === FALSE ) return false;
        
        return true;
    }
    
    function _load_validation($file)
    {
        if( file_exists($this->_validation_dir.$file) ){
            
            include_once($this->_validation_dir.$file);
            if(!empty($rules)) $this->CI->validation->set_rules($rules);
            if(!empty($fields)) $this->CI->validation->set_fields($fields);
            return $this->CI->validation->run();
        }
        return true;
    }    
    
}

/application/config/config.php (optional)
Code:
/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Validation Directory
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| This is the directory (in the application folder) to locate the validation
| files in. Should end with a '/'.
|
*/
$config['validation_directory'] = 'validation/';

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Validation Security
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| This flag enables or disables the validation security which verifies
| that the directory for validation files is not outside the application
| directory.
|
*/
$config['validation_security'] = TRUE;

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Validation File Suffix
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| This sets the suffix of the files that will be used for validation
| (in case you choose to put these files inside your controller directory).
|
*/
$config['validation_suffix'] = "_validation";

set_validation_dir - sets the directory to use for validation files. Useful if you want to set a different directory for a controller or method. Setting the second parameter to TRUE will append the directory to the existing.
Example:
Code:
set_validation_dir("validate/");
// equates to path/to/application/validate/

set_validation_dir("controller/",TRUE);
//equates to path/to/application/validate/controller/

validate_input - takes two parameters (controller name, method name [optional]). Calling this will automatically load the validation files and run the validation. First "controller" validation will be loaded, then "controller_method" validation if passed. Returns TRUE if passed, FALSE if failed. Errors are available in the standard fashion by calling $this->validation library (which is autoloaded if it does not exist when loading autovalidate).


Example Usage (default configuration)
Code:
// application/controller/test.php
//a standard CI controller with autovalidate loaded.
function submit()
{
  if(!$this->autovalidate->validate_input('test','submit')){
    //test_form.html is a simple form with a text field for submission
    $this->load->view('test_form.html');
    echo 'Failed Validation.<br />';
    return;
  }
   echo 'Passed!';
}

// application/validation/test_validation.php
$rules['testing'] = "min_length[5]|max_length[128]";
$fields['testing']    = 'Testing';

// application/validation/test_submit_validation.php
$rules['testing'] = "required";


AutoValidate v0.01 - El Forum - 07-18-2008

[eluser]Pygon[/eluser]
But, why?
The automation of the validation allows you to avoid writing validation rules in each of your controllers. Also, if you have a default set of validation rules based on the input name, you can avoid re-writing the rules:

Code:
// application/validation/default_validation.php
$rules['username'] = "min_length[5]|max_length[12]";
$rules['password'] = "min_length[6]|max_length[10]";
$rules['passconf'] = "min_length[6]|max_length[10]|matches[password]";
$rules['email'] = "required|valid_email";

By calling validate_input('default') first, you can reuse these validation rules in any controller, simply adding controller_method_validation.php for the methods that need to set certain fields as required for that method, creating a normalized input throughout your website.

Please let me know if you have any problems.