Best way to validate Laravel Requests

Question

In my Resource Controller I have a store and an update function with nearly the same validation rules. Because my validation is a bit more complicated I created a Request for this.

But because the validation rules differ a bit, I have to create two Requests:

one to store
one to update.

But so I have nearly the same array in two different places and if I decide to change it, I have to edit two different files. Is there a better way to do this?

I thought about creating an extra Request class which has an array with the common rules and the classes for the store and update Request inherit from this class and use the array from the base class to put together the validation rules.

But to add an extra class and inherit from it seems a little too much for me, just because one or to rules are different.

Another way I thought about was to only check the common rules in the Request class and add an extra validation in the store and update functions, but then the validation would be done in two different places, which would make the project more confusing.

I'm using Laravel version 5.8

Code would help us determine if simple OOP inheritance will work for you. It probably would, but it's hard to tell — apokryfos, Mar 15 '19 at 16:16
The code is just standard laravel validation, there is nothing special in it — no0by5, Mar 15 '19 at 16:20

apokryfos · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-18T11:22:49.143

4

I do suggest inheritance:

abstract class BaseRequest extends FormRequest {

        public function rules() {
              return [ /* common rules */ ]; 
        }
}

class StoreRequest extends BaseRequest {

       public function rules() {
           return array_merge(parent::rules(), [
               /* extra rules including overrides
           ]);
       }
}

You can do the same for the update request as well. This creates a central place to manage the commonalities in the request.

This being said without actual code we can't really know what's most appropriate for your case.

edited Mar 18 '19 at 11:22

answered Mar 16 '19 at 08:35

apokryfos

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I think that's the best way. But the StoreRequest should extend the BaseRequest not the FormRequest. – no0by5 Mar 18 '19 at 11:22
@no0by5 yes you're right, missed that detail. Thanks – apokryfos Mar 18 '19 at 11:23

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 15 '19 at 16:59

As @apokryfos says, its hard to tell without context but if you doesn't want to use inheritance, you could validate the request method inside the request class to add/remove elements from the validation array:

/** YourCustomFormRequest.php */

    //

    /**
     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function rules()
    {
       $rules = ['here', 'goes', 'your', 'common', 'rules'];

       if ($this->isMethod('post'))
       {
           array_merge($rules, ['a', 'specific', 'rule']);           
       }

       if ($this->isMethod('put')) // or 'patch'
       {
           array_merge($rules, ['another', 'specific', 'rule']);           
       }


        return $rules;
    }

    //

The logic behing this is, when you create an object, you should make a POST request, but when updating you use PUT/PATCH instead, so we are just getting the used method to add/remove conditions from the validation array.

Haven't test it yet, but this should work.

PS: In order to have a better code, you should consider decoupling the code and create specific classes.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 15 '19 at 17:01

You can check for the presence of something in the request that indicates an update. For example:

public function rules() {
    $rules = [];

    // these rules apply to both
    $rules['title'] = ['required'];

    if($this->input('id')) {
        // these rules only apply to updates
        $rules['something_specific_to_updates'] = ['foo'];
    } else {
        // these rules only apply to new records
        $rules['something_specific_to_new_records'] = ['bar'];
    }

    return $rules;
}

You can also look at $this->route('id') to look at the value of a route parameter rather than one in the form's $this->input POST data.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 22 '21 at 20:22

$validated = $request->validated();

use this:

public function createAccount(RegisterRequest $request)
{
    $attr = $request->validated();

instead of :

public function createAccount(Request $request)
{
    $attr = $request->validate([
        'name' => 'required|string|max:255',
        'email' => 'required|string|email|unique:users,email',
        'password' => 'required|string|min:6|confirmed'
    ]);

php artisan make:request RegisterRequest

public function rules()
{
    return [
        'name' => 'required|string|max:255',
        'email' => 'required|string|email|unique:users,email',
        'password' => 'required|string|min:6|confirmed'
    ];
}

Best way to validate Laravel Requests

4 Answers4