Validation Rules

Sparta has a simple rule's syntax that can be defined in two different ways. Here are the explanations of both:

Option 1:

The default syntax is to build your rule as string using various delimiters to denote the different parts (i.e., validator, arguments, and arguments values). A single attribute rule can be written as follows:

'attribute_name' => 'rule1 : argument1 = value1 , argument2 = value2 | rule2 | ....' 

Rule's Syntax

The following list providers a brief description of each rule segment:

• attribute_name: Name of the field to be validated as defined in your input collection
• rule1: Rule name in lowercase (e.g. alpha, email, required,...etc.)
• :: Default delimiter used to separate a given rule and its arguments
• argument1: Argument name to be passed to the validator
• =: Default delimiter used between an argument and its value
• value1: Argument's value
• ,:Default delimiter used between multiple arguments
• |:Default delimiter used between multiple rules
• rule2:Other rule name

A simple example that illustrates the usage of this syntax option is given below:

<?php
$rules = [
    'username'      => 'required|alpha_num|min:12|max:50',
    'email_address' => 'required|email'
];

Option 2:

Alternatively, a rule can be built using a simple array syntax as follows:

<?php
$rules = [
    'username'      => [
        'required',
        'alpha',
        'length_min:12',
        'length_max:50',
    ]
    'email_address' => [
        'required',
        'email'
    ]
];

Predefined Validators List

Sparta comes with the below out of the box validators:

• Accepted: a field must be yes, on, 1, or true.
• Alpha: a field must contain only alphabetic characters.
• AlphaNum: a field must contain only numerical and alphabetic characters.
• Between: a field must be a number that falls within the specified range.
• Boolean: a field must be boolean.
• Callback: use this to add your custom validations using a valid callback.
• Contains: a field must contain another given value.
• Date: a field must be a valid date.
• Different: a field must have a different value than the other given field.
• Email: a field must be a valid email address.
• Equals: a field must be equal to the specified other specified value.
• Even: a field must be an even number.
• FloatNumber: a field must be a float number.
• In: an alias of the validator InArray
• InArray: a field must be contained in the given array
• Integer: a field must be a valid integer number
• Ip: a field must be a valid IP address
• IsArray: a field must be a valid array
• IsInstanceOf: a field must be an instance of given reference/value
• Json: a field must be a valid JSON
• Length: a field length must be equal to the specified length
• LengthMax: a field length must not exceed the given length
• LengthMin: a field length must not be less than the given length
• Max: an alias of LengthMax
• Min: an alias of LengthMix
• Negative: a field must be a negative number
• NotEmpty: a field must not be empty
• Numeric: a field must contain numerical characters
• Odd: a field must be an odd number
• Positive: a field must be a positive number
• Regex: a field must match the given regular expression.
• Required: a field must be present and cannot be empty
• Slug: a field must be a valid slug
• Timezone: a field must be a valid timezone identifier according to the timezone_identifiers_list PHP function.
• Url: a field must be a valid URL

However, this does not mean that we are only limited to this list. In fact, adding new validators is a breeze. To learn more about creating new validators, please refer to the contribution section