octaValidate-PHP V2.1

This is a feature-rich Library that helps to validate your forms server-side using sophisticated regular expressions, PHP's inbuilt validation, and validation rules.

We have included a demo folder containing some forms with validation rules applied to each of them. Open any of the files in your local server and submit the form.

This Library also helps to validate your frontend forms using JavaScript. Visit the repository

OTHER RELEASES

Octavalidate - JS

Use the JavaScript release of this library to validate your frontend (HTML) forms.

Visit the repository

Octavalidate - NodeJS

Use the NodeJS release of this library to validate your forms server-side.

Visit the repository

DOCUMENTATION

Visit the DOCUMENTATION to learn more about this GREAT Library, and play with the forms there!

INSTALL

COMPOSER

$ composer require simon-ugorji/octavalidate-php

LOCAL

• Download and import the latest release to your project.
• In your project, use the require keyword & include the file Validate.php
• Now with the use keyword, link the class to your project and create a new instance of the class by passing in the form id as the first argument and any configuration as the second argument.

require 'src/Validate.php';

use Validate\octaValidate;

$myForm = new octaValidate('FORM_ID', 'CONFIG_OPTIONS');

How to Use

• Define validation rules for the form inputs
• Invoke the validateFields() method and pass in your validation rules as the first argument, then the fields to validate as the second argument. If no fields are provided, it defaults to the $_POST array.

//require the library
require 'src/Validate.php';

use Validate\octaValidate;

//create new instance
$myForm = new octaValidate('FORM_ID', 'CONFIG_OPTIONS');

//syntax for defining validation rules
$valRules = array(
  "FORM_INPUT_NAME" => array(
    ["RULE_TITLE", "CUSTOM_ERROR_MESSAGE"]
  )
);

/* If you don't provide a custom error message, 
the script will use the default one available
*/

//define rules for each form input name
$valRules = array(
  "uname" => array(
    ["R", "Your username is required"]
 ),
  "email" => array(
    ["R", "Your Email Address is required"],
    ["EMAIL", "Your Email Address is invalid!"]
) );

//begin validation on $_POST fields
if ($myForm->validateFields($valRules, $_POST) === true){
    //process form data here
}else{
  //return errors
  print_r(json_encode($myForm->getErrors()));
}

ABOUT THE VALIDATE FIELDS METHOD

The validateFields method accepts 2 arguments;

• The first argument is an array of your validation rules

• The second argument is the array of the fields to validate.

  • This is where the form fields are coming from which can either be the $_POST or $_GET array. If no value is provided, it defaults to the $_POST array.

  //validate $_POST fields
  $myForm->validateFields($valRules, $_POST);
  
  //validate $_GET fields
  $myForm->validateFields($valRules, $_GET);

This method returns a boolean.

• true means there are no validation errors
• false means there are validation errors

The validateFields method does not validate uploaded files! Keep reading to learn how you can validate uploaded files.

VALIDATION RULES

Here are the inbuilt validation rules.

• R - A value is required.
• ALPHA_ONLY - The value must be letters only! (lower-case or upper-case).
• LOWER_ALPHA - The value must be lower-case letters only.
• UPPER_ALPHA - The value must be upper-case letters only.
• ALPHA_SPACES - The value must contain letters or Spaces only!
• ALPHA_NUMERIC - The value must contain letters and numbers.
• DATE_MDY - The value must be a valid date with the format mm/dd/yyyy.
• DIGITS - The value must be valid digits or numbers.
• PWD - The value must contain at least one number and one uppercase and lowercase letter, and at least 8 or more characters.
• EMAIL - The value must be a valid Email Address.
• URL - The value must be a valid URL
• URL_QP - The value must be a valid URL and may contain Query parameters.
• USERNAME - The value may contain letters, numbers, a hyphen or an underscore.
• TEXT - The value may contain any of these special characters (. , / () [] & ! '' "" : ; ?)

Didn't see the validation rule that you need for your form? Don't worry!

With this library, you have the power to define your custom rule and it will be processed as if it were an inbuilt rule.

CUSTOM VALIDATION RULES

Syntax for defining a custom rule

$myForm->customRule($RULE_TITLE, $REG_EXP, $ERROR_TEXT);

Here's a custom rule to validate a password.

//require the library
require 'src/Validate.php';

use Validate\octaValidate;

//create new instance
$myForm = new octaValidate('my_form');

//custom password validation
$rule_title = 'PASS';
$reg_exp = '/12345/';
$err_txt = "Please enter 12345";
//build the rule
$myForm->customRule($rule_title, $reg_exp, $err_txt);

//provide the rule title when defining validation rules
$valRules = array(
    "password" => array(
        ["PASS"]
    )
);

MORE CUSTOM RULES

What if you want to define more validation rules?

All you have to do is to create an array that will contain the rule title as the array's property, and its value is another array containing the rule's regular expression, and error text separated by a comma.

Here's the syntax

$RULES = array(
    "RULE_TITLE" => ['REG_EXP', 'CUSTOM_ERROR_MESSAGE']
);
$myForm->moreCustomRules($RULES);

Here's a custom username & password validation rules

//require the library
require 'src/Validate.php';

use Validate\octaValidate;

$myForm = new octaValidate('my_form');

//custom username & password validation
$rules = array(
    "PASS" => ['/12345/', "Please enter 12345"],
    "UNAME" => ['/simon/', "Please enter simon"]
);

//build the rule
$myForm->moreCustomRules($rules);

//provide the rule title when defining validation
$valRules = array(
    "username" => array( 
        ["UNAME"] 
    ),
    "password" => array( 
        ["PASS"] 
    )
);

Note that: All Rule Titles are case-sensitive!

ATTRIBUTES VALIDATION

Currently we have 4 types of attribute validation:

• length validation
• EqualTo validation
• Size validation
• File Validation

All attribute validation follows the syntax below

//syntax
$valRules = array(
  "FORM_INPUT_NAME" => array(
    ["ATTRIBUTE_TITLE", "VALUE", "CUSTOM_ERROR_MESSAGE"]
  )
);

LENGTH VALIDATION RULES

You can check the number of characters provided by the user using this validation.

• maxlength (5) - This means that value must be 5 characters or less.
• minlength (5) - This means that value must be up to 5 characters or more.
• length (5) - This means that value must be equal to 5 characters.

For Example;

//sample validation
$valRules = array(
  "username" => array(
    ["R", "Your username is required"],
    ["MINLENGTH", "5", "Your username must contain 5 characters or more"]
 ),
  "age" => array(
    ["R", "Your age is required"],
    ["LENGTH", "2", "Your Age must contain 2 digits!"]
  )
);

EQUALTO VALIDATION RULES

You can check if two inputs contain the same values using the rule EQUALTO. The value of this validation rule must be the other input name you wish to check against.

//sample validation
$valRules = array(
  "password" => array(
    ["R", "Your password is required"],
    ["EQUALTO", "confirm_password", "Both passwords do not match"]
  )
);

FILE VALIDATION RULES

In File validation, we have rules such as;

• ACCEPT - Use this rule to list out the file extensions allowed for upload. Eg. .png, .jpeg.
• ACCEPT-MIME - Use this rule to list out the file MIME types allowed for upload. It supports a wildcard. Eg audio/*, image/*, image/jpeg, image/png.

It is recommended to use ACCEPT-MIME rule to validate file types

• SIZE - This rule makes sure that the size of the file or files provided must be equal to the specified value.
• MINSIZE - This rule makes sure that the size of the file or files provided must be up to the specified value or more.
• MAXSIZE - This rule makes sure that the size of the file or files provided must be the specified value or less.
• others includes; FILES, MINFILES, and MAXFILES

Note that size, minsize & maxsize works on both single or multiple files upload.

For example;

//sample validation
$formRules = array(
    //single file upload
    "file" => array(
        ["R"],
        ["ACCEPT", ".mp3, .ogg"],
        ["MAXSIZE", "5mb"]
    ),
    //multiple files upload
    "files" => array(
        ["R"],
        ["ACCEPT-MIME", "image/*"],
        ["MAXFILES", "5"],
        ["MAXSIZE", "50mb"]
    )
);

Please refer to the documentation to learn more about file validation.

API METHODS

CONFIGURATION

We have 3 configuration options:

• stripTags: Boolean

  Just like PHP's inbuilt stripTags function, this option loops through the POST Array and removes anything enclosed within a tag. Default value is false.

• strictMode: Boolean

  This option removes extra white space from the start and at the end of a form input and also prevents the user from providing reserved keywords as values. Default value is false.

• strictWords: Array

  This option alows you to provide words that users are not supposed to submit. For eg ["null", "error", "false"]. In order to use this option, you must set strictMode to true.

To use any of these options, provide it as an array and pass it as the second argument when creating an instance of octaValidate.

//require the library
require 'src/Validate.php';

use Validate\octaValidate;

//set configuration
$options = array(
  "stripTags" => true,
  "strictMode" => true,
  "strictWords" => ["null", "undefined"]
);
//create new instance
$myForm = new octaValidate('FORM_ID', $options);

REFERENCE METHODS

After creating a new instance of the function, the methods below becomes available for use.

//create instance of the function
$myForm = new octaValidate('FORM_ID');

• validateFields($valRules, $fieldList)

  Invoke this method to begin validation on the form fields

• validateFiles($valRules)

  Invoke this method to begin validation on uploaded files

• getForm()

  This method returns the form ID attached to the validation instance.

• customRule($RULE_TITLE, $REG_EXP, $ERROR_TEXT)

  Invoke this method to define your validation rule.

• moreCustomRules($RULES)

  Invoke this method to define more validation rules.

• getVersion()

  Invoke this method to retrieve the library's version number.

There are more methods in the documentation, Please refer to the documentation to learn more.

DEMO

• Open any file within the demo folder and submit the form or visit the documentation and submit the forms there.

Author

Simon Ugorji

Support Me

Donate with PayPal

Contributors

Simon Ugorji