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ActiveLibrary[Validation &amp; Sanitization](/categories/validation)

webcharte/violin
================

Violin is an easy to use, highly customisable PHP validator.

1750PHP

Since May 20Pushed 3y ago1 watchersCompare

[ Source](https://github.com/webcharte/violin)[ Packagist](https://packagist.org/packages/webcharte/violin)[ RSS](/packages/webcharte-violin/feed)WikiDiscussions main Synced 1mo ago

READMEChangelog (1)DependenciesVersions (1)Used By (0)

violin
======

[](#violin)

Violin is an easy to use, highly customisable PHP validator.

**Note: This package is under heavy development and is not recommended for production.**

Installing
----------

[](#installing)

Install using Composer.

```
{
    "require": {
        "webcharte/violin": "2.*"
    }
}
```

Basic usage
-----------

[](#basic-usage)

```
use Violin\Violin;

$v = new Violin;

$v->validate([
    'name'  => ['billy', 'required'],
    'age'   => [20, 'required|int']
]);

if($v->passes()) {
    echo 'Validation passed, woo!';
} else {
    echo '', var_dump($v->errors()->all()), '';
}
```

Adding custom rules
-------------------

[](#adding-custom-rules)

Adding custom rules is simple. If the closure returns false, the rule fails.

```
$v->addRuleMessage('isbanana', 'The {field} field expects "banana", found "{value}" instead.');

$v->addRule('isbanana', function($value, $input, $args) {
    return $value === 'banana';
});

$v->validate([
    'fruit' => ['apple', 'isbanana']
]);
```

Adding custom error messages
----------------------------

[](#adding-custom-error-messages)

You can add rule messages, or field messages for total flexibility.

### Adding a rule message

[](#adding-a-rule-message)

```
$v->addRuleMessage('required', 'You better fill in the {field} field, or else.');
```

### Adding rule messages in bulk

[](#adding-rule-messages-in-bulk)

```
$v->addRuleMessages([
    'required' => 'You better fill in the {field} field, or else.',
    'int'      => 'The {field} needs to be an integer, but I found {value}.',
]);
```

### Adding a field message

[](#adding-a-field-message)

Any field messages you add are used before any default or custom rule messages.

```
$v->addFieldMessage('username', 'required', 'You need to enter a username to sign up.');
```

### Adding field messages in bulk

[](#adding-field-messages-in-bulk)

```
$v->addFieldMessages([
    'username' => [
        'required' => 'You need to enter a username to sign up.'
    ],
    'age' => [
        'required' => 'I need your age.',
        'int'      => 'Your age needs to be an integer.',
    ]
]);
```

### Using Field Aliases

[](#using-field-aliases)

Field Aliases helps you format any error messages without showing weird form names or the need to create a custom error.

```
$v->validate([
    'username_box|Username' => ['' => 'required']
]);

// Error output: "Username is required."
```

### Extending Violin

[](#extending-violin)

You can extend the Violin class to add custom rules, rule messages and field messages. This way, you can keep a tidy class to handle custom validation if you have any dependencies, like a database connection or language files.

```
class MyValidator extends Violin
{
    protected $db;

    public function __construct(PDO $db)
    {
        $this->db = $db;

        // Add rule message for custom rule method.
        $this->addRuleMessage('uniqueUsername', 'That username is taken.');
    }

    // Custom rule method for checking a unique username in our database.
    // Just prepend custom rules with validate_
    public function validate_uniqueUsername($value, $input, $args)
    {
        $user = $this->db->prepare("
            SELECT count(*) as count
            FROM users
            WHERE username = :username
        ");

        $user->execute(['username' => $value]);

        if($user->fetchObject()->count) {
            return false; // Username exists, so return false.
        }

        return true;
    }
}

// A database connection.
$db = new PDO('mysql:host=127.0.0.1;dbname=website', 'root', 'root');

// Instantiate your custom class with dependencies.
$v = new MyValidator($db);

$v->validate([
    'username' => ['billy', 'required|uniqueUsername']
]);
```

Rules
-----

[](#rules)

This list of rules are **in progress**. Of course, you can always contribute to the project if you'd like to add more to the base ruleset.

#### alnum

[](#alnum)

If the value is alphanumeric.

#### alnumDash

[](#alnumdash)

If the value is alphanumeric. Dashes and underscores are permitted.

#### alpha

[](#alpha)

If the value is alphabetic letters only.

#### alphaDash

[](#alphadash)

If the value is alphabetic letters only. Dashes and underscores are permitted.

#### array

[](#array)

If the value is an array.

#### between(int, int)

[](#betweenint-int)

Checks if the value is within the intervals defined. This check is inclusive, so 5 is between 5 and 10.

#### bool

[](#bool)

If the value is a boolean.

#### email

[](#email)

If the value is a valid email.

#### int

[](#int)

If the value is an integer, including numbers within strings. 1 and '1' are both classed as integers.

#### number

[](#number)

If the value is a number, including numbers within strings.

> Numeric strings consist of optional sign, any number of digits, optional decimal part and optional exponential part. Thus +0123.45e6 is a valid numeric value. Hexadecimal (e.g. 0xf4c3b00c), Binary (e.g. 0b10100111001), Octal (e.g. 0777) notation is allowed too but only without sign, decimal and exponential part.

#### ip

[](#ip)

If the value is a valid IP address.

#### min(int, \[number\])

[](#minint-number)

Check if string length is greater than or equal to given `int`. To check the size of a number, pass the optional `number` option.

```
$v->validate([
    'username' => ['billy', 'required|min(3)|max(20)'],
    'age' => ['20', 'required|min(18, number)|max(100, number)']
]);
```

#### max(int, \[number\])

[](#maxint-number)

Check if string length is less than or equal to given `int`. To check the size of a number, pass the optional `number` option.

#### required

[](#required)

If the value is present.

#### url

[](#url)

If the value is formatted as a valid URL.

#### matches(field)

[](#matchesfield)

Checks if one given input matches the other. For example, checking if *password* matches *password\_confirm*.

#### date

[](#date)

If the given input is a valid date.

You can validate human readable dates like '25th October 1961' and instances of `DateTime`. For example:

```
$twoDaysAgo = new DateTime('2 days ago');
$date = $twoDaysAgo->format('d M Y');

$v->validate([
    'date' => [$date, 'required|date']
]);
```

#### checked

[](#checked)

If a field has been 'checked' or not, meaning it contains one of the following values: *'yes'*, *'on'*, *'1'*, *1*, *true*, or *'true'*. This can be used for determining if an HTML checkbox has been checked.

#### regex(expression)

[](#regexexpression)

If the given input has a match for the regular expression given.

Contributing
------------

[](#contributing)

Please file issues under GitHub, or submit a pull request if you'd like to directly contribute.

### Running tests

[](#running-tests)

Tests are run with phpunit. Run `./vendor/bin/phpunit` to run tests.

###  Health Score

19

—

LowBetter than 10% of packages

Maintenance20

Infrequent updates — may be unmaintained

Popularity17

Limited adoption so far

Community7

Small or concentrated contributor base

Maturity26

Early-stage or recently created project

 Bus Factor1

Top contributor holds 100% of commits — single point of failure

How is this calculated?**Maintenance (25%)** — Last commit recency, latest release date, and issue-to-star ratio. Uses a 2-year decay window.

**Popularity (30%)** — Total and monthly downloads, GitHub stars, and forks. Logarithmic scaling prevents top-heavy scores.

**Community (15%)** — Contributors, dependents, forks, watchers, and maintainers. Measures real ecosystem engagement.

**Maturity (30%)** — Project age, version count, PHP version support, and release stability.

### Community

Maintainers

![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7ede6eb428b40dcb8bf0a37732cc34c1a5165d7eda54dbec92855a4b31bf5116?d=identicon)[webcharte](/maintainers/webcharte)

---

Top Contributors

[![webcharte](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/97476961?v=4)](https://github.com/webcharte "webcharte (50 commits)")

### Embed Badge

![Health badge](/badges/webcharte-violin/health.svg)

```
[![Health](https://phpackages.com/badges/webcharte-violin/health.svg)](https://phpackages.com/packages/webcharte-violin)
```

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