validatorjs

The validatorjs library makes data validation in JavaScript very easy in both the browser and Node.js. This library was inspired by the Laravel framework's Validator class.

Why use validatorjs?

1. Not dependent on any libraries
2. Works in the browser and Node.js
3. Readable and declarative validation rules
4. Size
   • Development version: 3.62 kB gzipped with lots of spacing and comments
   • Production version: 2.02 kB gzipped and minified
5. Supports other languages
6. AMD/Require.js and CommonJS/Browserify support

Browser

<script src="dist/validator.min.js"></script>

You can also install it using Bower.

bower install validatorjs

Node.js / Browserify Setup

npm install validatorjs

var Validator = require('validatorjs');

Basic Usage

var validation = new Validator(data, rules [, customErrorMessages]);

data {Object} - The data you want to validate

rules {Object} - Validation rules

customErrorMessages {Object} - Optional custom error messages to return

Alternatively, you can use a static make() method on the Validator class.

var validation = Validator.make(data, rules [, customErrorMessages]);

Example 1 - Passing validation

var data = {
    name: 'John',
    email: 'johndoe@gmail.com',
    age: 28
};

var rules = {
    name: 'required',
    email: 'required|email',
    age: 'min:18'
};

var validation = new Validator(data, rules);

validation.passes(); // true
validation.fails(); // false

To apply validation rules to the data object, use the same object key names for the rules object.

Example 2 - Failing validation

var validation = new Validator({
    name: 'D',
    email: 'not an email address.com'
}, {
    name: 'size:3',
    email: 'required|email'
});

validation.fails(); // true
validation.passes(); // false

// Error messages
validation.errors.first('email'); // 'The email format is invalid.'
validation.errors.get('email'); // returns an array of all email error messages

Validation Rules

Validation rules do not have an implicit 'required'. If a field is undefined or an empty string, it will pass validation. If you want a validation to fail for undefined or '', use the required rule.

accepted

The field under validation must be yes, on, or 1. This is useful for validating "Terms of Service" acceptance.

alpha

The field under validation must be entirely alphabetic characters.

alpha_dash

The field under validation may have alpha-numeric characters, as well as dashes and underscores.

alpha_num

The field under validation must be entirely alpha-numeric characters.

confirmed

The field under validation must have a matching field of foo_confirmation. For example, if the field under validation is password, a matching password_confirmation field must be present in the input.

digits:value

The field under validation must be numeric and must have an exact length of value.

different:attribute

The given field must be different than the field under validation.

email

The field under validation must be formatted as an e-mail address.

in:foo,bar,...

The field under validation must be included in the given list of values.

####integer

The field under validation must have an integer value.

max:value

Validate that an attribute is no greater than a given size

Note: Maximum checks are inclusive.

min:value

Validate that an attribute is at least a given size.

Note: Minimum checks are inclusive.

not_in:foo,bar,...

The field under validation must not be included in the given list of values.

numeric

Validate that an attribute is numeric. The string representation of a number will pass.

required

Checks if the length of the String representation of the value is >

same:attribute

The given field must match the field under validation.

size:value

Validate that an attribute is a given length, or, if an attribute is numeric, is a given value

url

Validate that an attribute has a valid URL format

regex:pattern

The field under validation must match the given regular expression.

Note: When using the regex pattern, it may be necessary to specify rules in an array instead of using pipe delimiters, especially if the regular expression contains a pipe character. For each backward slash that you used in your regex pattern, you must escape each one with another backward slash.

Example 3 - Regex validation

var validation = new Validator({
    name: 'Doe',
    salary: '10,000.00',
    yearOfBirth: '1980'
}, {
    name: 'required|size:3',
    salary: ['required', 'regex:/^(?!0\\.00)\\d{1,3}(,\\d{3})*(\\.\\d\\d)?$/'],
    yearOfBirth: ['required', 'regex:/^(19|20)[\\d]{2,2}$/']
});

validation.fails(); // false
validation.passes(); // true

Registering Custom Validation Rules

Validator.register(custom_rule_name, callbackFn, errorMessage);

custom_rule_name {String}

callbackFn {Function}. Returns a boolean to represent a successful or failed validation.

errorMessage {String} - An optional string where you can specify a custom error message. :attribute inside errorMessage will be replaced with the attribute name.

Validator.register('telephone', function(value, requirement, attribute) { // requirement paramter defaults to null
    return val.match(/^\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}$/);
}, 'The :attribute phone number is not in the format XXX-XXX-XXXX.');

Error Messages

This contructor will automatically generate error messages for validation rules that failed.

If there are errors, the Validator instance will have its errors property object populated with the error messages for all failing attributes. The methods and properties on the errors property object are:

.first(attribute)

returns the first error message for an attribute, false otherwise

.get(attribute)

returns an array of error messages for an attribute, or an empty array if there are no errors

.all()

returns an object containing all error messages for all failing attributes

.has(attribute)

returns true if error messages exist for an attribute, false otherwise

.errorCount

the number of validation errors

var validation = new Validator(input, rules);
validation.errors.first('email'); // returns first error message for email attribute
validator.errors.get('email'); // returns an array of error messages for the email attribute

Custom Error Messages

If you need a specific error message and you don't want to override the default one, you can pass an override as the third argument to the Validator object, just like with Laravel.

var input = {
    name: ''
};

var rules = {
    name : 'required'
};

var validation = new Validator(input, rules, { required: 'You forgot to give a :attribute' });
validation.errors.first('name'); // returns 'You forgot to give a name'

Some of the validators have string and numeric versions. You can change them too.

var input = {
    username: 'myusernameistoolong'
};

var rules = {
    username : 'max:16'
};

var validation = new Validator(input, rules, {
    max: {
        string: 'The :attribute is too long. Max length is :max.'
    }
});

validation.errors.first('username'); // returns 'The username is too long. Max length is 16.'

You can even provide error messages on a per attribute basis! Just set the message's key to 'validator.attribute'

var input = { name: '', email: '' };
var rules = { name : 'required', email : 'required' };

var validation = new Validator(input, rules, {
    "required.email": "Without an :attribute we can't reach you!"
});

validation.errors.first('name'); // returns  'The name field is required.'
validation.errors.first('email'); // returns 'Without an email we can\'t reach you!'

Language Support

You can build the project with error messages in other languages. Simply create a language file in src/lang/ modeled after en.js.

# Defaults to en.js
grunt --lang=en

The English build will be dist/validator.js. Other builds will be dist/validator-**.js.

Please contribute your language files!

Tests

# Terminal tab 1
./node_modules/karma/bin/karma start

# Terminal tab 2
grunt watch

Grunt will watch the files in src/ and build the library on change. Karma will watch the final build of the library, dist/validator.js, and run the tests on change.

If someone knows how to make this into a combined task, please send a pull request!

Build

grunt