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Laravel Rules

Rules provides an elegant chainable object-oriented approach to defining rules for Laravel Validation.

Installation

Grab it via composer

Versions

• PHP 8.1 and 8.2 @ Laravel 10 → v1.2.0
• PHP 8.2 and 8.3 @ Laravel 11 → v1.3.0

Documentation

Rules → A quick overview

This produces a ruleset of the following (when passed to a Validator instance or returned from a your \Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest->rules() method):

Rules → Available rules

Every rule you're familiar with in Laravel will work with this package. Each core rule, such as required, string, min, etc, are also available using their respective methods of the same name in camelCase. Parameters for each rule (such as min 3 and max 4) in digitsBetween:3,4 are made available as method arguments, such as: ->digitsBetween(min: 3, max: 4).

The ->rule() method acts as a catch-all to support any rule you need to chuck in there, such as in the short interim after new rules are added and support is added to this package.

For example:

Rules → Conditional rules

You may specify rules that are conditionally defined. For example, you may wish to make a field required on create, and sometimes on update. In this case you may define something like:

The conditional rules that you provide (in the example above: required and sometimes) may be of any variable type that is supported by the ->rule() method (as documented here).

Rules → Reusable rules

The ->with(...) method in a rule offers you the flexibility you need to specify rule logic that can be re-used wherever you need it.

Here is an example:

The ->with(...) method accepts any form of callable, such as

• Closures (e.g. function () { })
• Traditional callable notations (e.g. [$this, 'methodName'])
• First-class callables (e.g. $this->methodName(...))
• Invokable classes (e.g. a class with the __invoke magic method)
• Whatever else PHP defines as callable.

Customisation → Macros

This package allows you to define "macros" which can serve as a fluent way to configure common rules.

For example, the following code adds an australianPhoneNumber method to the Rule class:

The downside to using Macros is the lack of auto-completion and intellisense. Macros are not for everyone.

Customisation → Custom Rule class

You may wish to use your own Rule class to provide your own customisation. This can be achieved by registering your Rule class via your AppServiceProvider or a similar place.

This allows you to customise any aspect you wish:

About → Benefits

Better syntax

Similar to chaining DB column schema definitions in migrations, this package aims to provide a clean, elegant chaining syntax.

Parameter Insights

When dealing with string-based validation rules such as decimal, remembering what the available parameters can become a nuisance. As methods, you can get autocompletion and greater insights into the parameters available, along with a quick @link to the validation rule documentation, to better understand how the validation rule works.

Variable Injection

Instead of concatenating variables in an awkward manner like 'min:'.getMinValue() you can clearnly inject variables as method arguments like ->min(getMinValue())

Conditional Logic

Easily add validation rules based on conditions, using the ->when() and ->unless() methods, as well as by passing in conditional states into methods such as ->requiredIf($this->method() === 'POST').

Wide Support of Rules

Not only does it support all core-Laravel rules, but it also supports any custom rule classes that you define.

Fully Customisable

Full customisation using custom rule classes

About → Performance

The performance of this packages varies as does natural PHP execution time. A single validator test that tests a string and integer with varying validity (based on min/max rules) results in a range of -20 microseconds to 20 microseconds difference, with an average of a 14 microsecond delay.

The more the package is utilised in a single request, the less relative overhead is seen. For example, running the same validation rules with 20 varying strings and integers can result in an average of 9 microseconds or even less.

The overhead here is considered negligible.

Side Feature → The ValidationRule class

An optional, different approach to a typical implementation of the ValidationRule interface is the BradieTilley\Rules\Validation\ValidationRule class which hanldes the horrible signature of the Closure $fail argument and forced void return type inside the abstract class, allowing your rule classes to ship with cleaner syntax.

To get started, simply extend the BradieTilley\Rules\Validation\ValidationRule class in your custom rule class. And instead of defining a validate method, define the run method.

So instead of this:

You would have this:

Why

Single line failures

Because of the void return type of the validate method, you cannot return $fail('Some error message'); in a single line, and if you adhere to any of the common code styles out there you also have to have an empty line before a return; statement (unless it's the first line in a body). This cleans things up a bit by allowing that clean single line return:

Readability

By enforcing a return type (static in this case), this forces you to specify at least some form of a response rather than ambiguous empty return; statements that get used for pass and failure results. Although you could return $this;, it obviously encourages you to do the right thing and return a result. This improves readability by forcing you to explain the exit result:

Failure syntax

Invoking a method is always visually cleaner than invoking a Closure variable. This provides a cleaner syntax:

Method signature

The $fail parameter of the validate method is messy. It's a Closure that requires importing at the top, and if you enforce generics in your project, the $fail parameter requires a type hint that explains any arguments and return types. Removing this type hint means the docblock is purely to say "Run the validation rule." which is superfluous and can be removed too.

Issues

If you spot any issues please feel free to open an Issue and/or PR and I'll address the issues.

Author

• Bradie Tilley