Validation

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As common as it is, validation is essential for every application. Lucid brings a domain-driven approach that embraces Laravel’s validation. In short, if you’ve done validation with Laravel you’re already familiar with everything here, we will only choose convenient locations for Validators and Form Requests by placing them in domains.

Domain-Driven Validation

Often times validation is a matter of context, and domains in Lucid are an ideal place to encapsulate functionality, and form requests fit perfectly there! e.g. Domains/{domain}/Requests/{Request}.php

Eventually we’d end up with a categorical directory structure that protects our validation files from becoming unmanageable.

Form Requests

app/Domains
├── Chat
│   └── Requests
│       └── SendMessage.php
├── Comment
│   └── Requests
│       └── AddComment.php
├── Filesystem
│   └── Requests
│       └── UploadFiles.php
└── Post
    └── Requests
        ├── CreatePost.php
        └── UpdatePost.php

Validation Jobs

app/Domains
├── Chat
│   └── Jobs
│       └── ValidateNewMessageJob.php
├── Comment
│   └── Jobs
│       └── ValidateNewCommentJob.php
├── Filesystem
│   └── Jobs
│       └── ValidateFilesUploadJob.php
└── Post
    └── Jobs
        ├── ValidateNewPostJob.php
        └── ValidatePostUpdateJob.php

Form Request Validation

In an effort to keep our controllers thin and reduce their clutter, as well as having features carry their requirements with them wherever we decide to serve them from, it is recommended for validation using Form Request to happen in features instead of controllers, to maintain their integrity whenever they’re served.

Nevertheless, it is done exactly the same as Laravel controllers in any of Lucid’s units, by injecting the form request class in the method signature as a parameter:

class CustomFeature extends Feature
{
    public function handle(UpdatePost $request)
    {
        // request is valid according to the rules specified in UpdatePost
    }
}

This will perform Form Request Validation using UpdatePost class.

The same can be done in any unit: Feature, Job and Operation.

For more on Form Request classes see Laravel’s docs.

Generate Form Request

Micro

Signature

lucid make:request <name> <domain>

Example

lucid make:request UpdatePost post

Generated class will be at app/Domains/Post/Requests/UpdatePost.php

Monolith

Signature

lucid make:request <name> <domain>

Example

lucid make:request UpdatePost post

Generated class will be at src/Domains/Post/Requests/UpdatePost.php

<?php

namespace App\Domains\Post\Requests;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;

class UpdatePost extends FormRequest
{
    /**
     * Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function authorize()
    {
        return true;
    }

    /**
     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function rules()
    {
        return [
            //
        ];
    }
}

Requests as Unit Dispatchers

One of the most powerful aspects of Lucid is the degree of code reuse it introduces. Specifically when dealing with Job and Operation classes which can be called from any custom dispatcher class.

Here, we will be setting up UpdatePost Request class to authorize using AuthorizeUserOperation, and on after hook to run FaliedValidationJob.

Benefit: Doing so would increase the degree of consistency and integrity in our application, where AuthorizeUserOperation could contain our consolidated authorization mechanism and can be called from any other class such as middleware to authoriza pre-flight. As for FaliedValidationJob it will ensure that all of our failed validations are handled consistently as expected.

<?php

namespace App\Domains\Post\Requests;

use Lucid\Bus\UnitDispatcher;
use App\Operations\AuthorizeUserOperation;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
use App\Domains\Http\Jobs\FailedValidationJob;

class UpdatePost extends FormRequest
{
    use UnitDispatcher;

    public function authorize()
    {
        return $this->run(new AuthorizeUserOperation());
    }

    public function rules()
    {
        return [
            'title' => 'required|unique:posts|max:255',
            'body' => 'required',
        ];
    }

    public function withValidator($validator)
    {
        $validator->after(function ($validator) {
            if ($this->somethingElseIsInvalid()) {
                $this->run(new FailedValidationJob($validator));
            }
        });
    }
}

Validation Jobs

Another approach to validation is to validate using jobs. This is most useful with protocols other than HTTP (e.g. Console, AMQP, etc.), or if you simply choose not to use Requests.

Our validation jobs would contain validation logic so it can be called whenever validation is required.

Start by creating a job:

lucid make:job ValidatePostUpdate post

Then inject Illuminate\Http\Request and fill in your validation logic:

<?php

namespace App\Domains\Post\Jobs;

use Lucid\Units\Job;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class ValidatePostUpdateJob extends Job
{
    public function handle(Request $request)
    {
        $validData = $request->validate([
            'title' => 'required|unique:posts|max:255',
            'body' => 'required',
        ]);

        return $validData;
    }
}

CLI Reference