Laravel Rule Repository

A package to allow rules (for example validation rules) to be attached to a model, whilst avoiding storing them on the model itself or in a controller.

Installation

Install via Composer:

composer require konsulting/laravel-rule-repository

Usage

Each model under validation should have its own validation repository attached to it, containing default validation rules and, optionally, validation rules for different states. You may, for example, require different validation rules when updating the model as opposed to creating it.

Creating the repository

The validation repository must implement Contracts\RuleRepository, and as such must contain a default() method which returns an array of default rules. It may also contain any number of 'state' methods which contain differing rules.

Note:

• State methods names should use camel case.
• State-specific rules will be merged (non-recursively) with the default rules when they are retrieved.

Extending the AbstractRepository class

The AbstractRepository class is provided with some helper functions to make defining rules easier. This class may be extended instead of directly implementing the interface.

Sometimes it's useful to append or prepend a rule to an existing list of rules, e.g. making values required only on model creation. This is possible with the following methods:

AbstractRepository::prependRule(string $rule, array $baseRules);
AbstractRepository::prependRules(array $rules, array $baseRules);

AbstractRepository::appendRule(string $rule, array $baseRules);
AbstractRepository::appendRules(array $rules, array $baseRules);

Example repository:

use Konsulting\Laravel\RuleRepository\AbstractRepository;

class UserRuleRepository extends AbstractRepository
{
    public function default() : array
    {
        return [
            'name'          => 'string',
            'email'         => 'string|email',
            'date_of_birth' => 'date',
        ];
    }
    
    public function create() : array
    {
        return $this->prependRule('required', $this->default());
    }
}

Attaching the repository to the model

The model to attach the rules to should use the RuleRepositoryTrait trait. It is recommended (but not required) that the model implements the interface Contracts\HasRuleRepositories.

The static property $ruleRepositories should be initialised to an associative array of repository class paths, with the repository name as the key.

use Konsulting\Laravel\RuleRepository\Contracts\HasRuleRepository;
use Konsulting\Laravel\RuleRepository\RuleRepositoryTrait;

class User extends Model implements HasRuleRepository
{
    use RuleRepositoryTrait;

    protected static $ruleRepositories = [
        'validation' => UserValidationRepository::class;
    ];
}

Retrieving validation rules

The model's validation rules can be retrieved using the static method getRules($name, $state = 'default').

To return the default rules for the validation repository:

User::getRules('validation');

// or

User::getRules('validation', 'default');

To get state-specific rules:

User::getRules('validation', 'update');

User::getRules('validation', $state);

States may be named in either camel-case or snake-case.

Using magic methods

The RepositoryMagicMethods trait may also be added to the model to allow rules to be retrieved with a more concise syntax. Rules may be retrieved using:

Model::{$repositoryName . 'Rules'}($state = 'default');

For example:

User::validationRules();

User::validationRules('update');