Validate arguments in Laravel commands

This package allows you to easily validate all entered arguments in Laravel commands.

Here's a brief example where we will automatically validate the foo argument against the required and min:3 rules:

<?php
 
namespace App\Console\Commands;
 
use Illuminate\Console\Command;
use PerryvanderMeer\LaravelConsoleValidator\ValidatesArguments;
 
class ExampleCommand extends Command
{
    use ValidatesArguments;
    
    /**
     * Set the validation rules that apply to the command.
     *
     * @var array<string, array|string>
     */
    protected array $rules = [
        'foo' => ['required', 'min:3'],
    ];
}

Requirements

This package requires PHP 8.1+ and Laravel 10+.

Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require perryvandermeer/laravel-console-validator

Usage

To get started, you will need to include the ValidatesArguments trait in your command.
When the command is executed, it will automatically perform validation before reaching the handle() method. When the validation fails, the handle() method will never be executed.

<?php
 
namespace App\Console\Commands;
 
use Illuminate\Console\Command;
use PerryvanderMeer\LaravelConsoleValidator\ValidatesArguments;
 
class ExampleCommand extends Command
{
    use ValidatesArguments;
}

Configuring The Validator

Just like when you use Laravel's validator, it is possible to configure the rules, messages and attributes.

Rules

You may configure the validation rules used by the command by defining the $rules property and/or the rules() method.

The rules() method can be helpful if you are trying to use run-time syntaxes that aren't supported in array properties, like Laravel rule objects such as Rule::password(). When you use both the $rules property and the rules() method, we merge them together.

The property and/or method should return an array of argument / rule pairs and their corresponding validation rules.

/**
 * Set the validation rules that apply to the command.
 *
 * @var array<string, array|string>
 */
protected array $rules = [
    'title' => ['required', 'min:3'],
    'content' => 'required',
];

/**
 * Get the validation rules that apply to the command.
 *
 * @return array<string, \Illuminate\Contracts\Validation\Rule|array|string>
 */
protected function rules() : array
{
    return [
        'title' => ['required', 'min:3', Rule::unique('posts')],
        'content' => 'required',
    ];
}

Messages

You may customize the error messages used by the command by defining the $messages property and/or the messages() method.

The messages() method can be helpful if you are trying to use run-time syntaxes that aren't supported in array properties. When you use both the $messages property and the messages() method, we merge them together.

The property and/or method should return an array of argument / rule pairs and their corresponding error messages.

/**
 * Set the error messages for the defined validation rules.
 *
 * @var array<string, string>
 */
protected array $messages = [
    'title' => 'Whoo general message for title argument..!',
    'content.min' => 'Hmm the content is very short..!',
];

/**
 * Get the error messages for the defined validation rules.
 *
 * @return array<string, string>
 */
protected function messages() : array
{
    return [
        'title' => 'Whoo general message for title argument..!',
        'content.min' => 'Hmm the content is very short..!',
    ];   
}

Attributes

Many of Laravel's built-in validation rule error messages contain an :attribute placeholder. As default, the name of the argument is used as :attribute. If you would like the :attribute placeholder of your validation message to be replaced with a custom attribute name, you may specify the custom names by defining the $attributes property and/or the attributes() method..

The attributes() method can be helpful if you are trying to use run-time syntaxes that aren't supported in array properties. When you use both the $attributes property and the attributes() method, we merge them together.

The property and/or method should return an array of argument / name pairs.

/**
 * Set custom attributes for validator errors.
 *
 * @return array<string, string>
 */
protected array $attributes = [
    'title' => 'custom title',
    'content' => 'custom content',
];

/**
 * Get custom attributes for validator errors.
 *
 * @return array<string, string>
 */
protected function attributes() : array
{
    return [
        'title' => 'custom title',
        'content' => 'custom content',
    ];
}

Preparing Arguments For Validation

If you need to prepare or sanitize any data before you apply your validation rules, you may use the prepareForValidation() method.

/**
 * Prepare the data for validation.
 */
protected function prepareForValidation() : void
{
     $this->input->setArgument(
        name: 'foo',
        value: "{$this->argument('foo')}-bar",
    );
}

Working With Validated Arguments

Just like when you use Laravel's validator, it is possible to use the validated arguments in the rest of your implementation.

Retrieving All Validated Arguments

After validating the arguments, you may wish to retrieve the arguments that actually underwent validation. This can be accomplished in several ways. First, you may call the validated() method within your command. This method returns an array of the data that was validated.

$this->validated(); // (array) ['foo' => 'bar', 'bar' => 'baz']

When you want a Collection of all arguments that underwent validation, you may call the collect() method within your command. This method returns a Collection of the data that was validated.

$this->collect(); // collect(['foo' => 'bar', 'bar' => 'baz'])

Retrieving A Single Validated Argument

When you pass an argument to the validated() method, it will only return the validated value of that argument. When the requested argument has not been validated, it will throw the UnvalidatedArgumentException exception.

$this->validated('foo'); // (string) 'bar'

When you want to make sure the validated value of the argument is cast to a string, you may use the string() method.

$this->string('foo'); // (string) 'bar'

Your command may receive "truthy" values that are actually strings, like (string) 'true' or (string) 'on'. You may use the bool() or boolean() method to retrieve these values as booleans. Those methods use PHP's FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN flag to determine if the passed argument is (bool) true or (bool) false.

$this->boolean('foo'); // (bool) false

Testing

You may use the assertExitCode() method to assert that the command returned any validation error:

use Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command;

$this->artisan('foo')
    ->assertExitCode(Command::INVALID);

In addition, it may be useful to test for a specific validation error. You may use the expectsOutput() method to assert that the command returned a specific validation error:

$this->artisan('foo')
    ->expectsOutput('The foo field must be at least 6 characters.') 

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Security Vulnerabilities

Please review our security policy on how to report security vulnerabilities.

Credits

• Perry van der Meer
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.