• The majority of code examples in this book are done in cfscript.

External Trademarks & Copyrights

Flash, Flex, ColdFusion, and Adobe are registered trademarks and copyrights of Adobe Systems, Inc.

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed “as is”, without warranty. The author and Ortus Solutions, Corp shall not have any liability to any person or entity with respect to loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the content of this training book, software and resources described in it.

Contributing

Charitable Proceeds

Shalom Children's Home

Shalom Children’s Home is one of the ministries that is dear to our hearts located in El Salvador. During the 12 year civil war that ended in 1990, many children were left orphaned or abandoned by parents who fled El Salvador. The Benners saw the need to help these children and received 13 children in 1982. Little by little, more children came on their own, churches and the government brought children to them for care, and the Shalom Children’s Home was founded.

Shalom now cares for over 80 children in El Salvador, from newborns to 18 years old. They receive shelter, clothing, food, medical care, education and life skills training in a Christian environment. The home is supported by a child sponsorship program.

We have personally supported Shalom for over 6 years now; it is a place of blessing for many children in El Salvador that either have no families or have been abandoned. This is good earth to seed and plant.

• feature : Updated RequiredUnless and RequiredIf to use struct literal notation instead of the weird parsing we did.

• feature : Added the Unique validator thanks to @elpete!

• improvement : Added null support for the RequiredIf,RequiredUnless validator values

Luis Fernando Majano Lainez

Luis has a passion for Jesus, tennis, golf, volleyball and anything electronic. Random Author Facts:

• He played volleyball in the Salvadorean National Team at the tender age of 17

• The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is something he reads every 5 years. (Geek!)

• His first ever computer was a Texas Instrument TI-86 that his parents gave him in 1986. After some time digesting his very first BASIC book, he had written his own tic-tac-toe game at the age of 9. (Extra geek!)

• He has a geek love for circuits, microcontrollers and overall embedded systems.

• He has of late (during old age) become a fan of organic gardening.

Keep Jesus number one in your life and in your heart. I did and it changed my life from desolation, defeat and failure to an abundant life full of love, thankfulness, joy and overwhelming peace. As this world breathes failure and fear upon any life, Jesus brings power, love and a sound mind to everybody!

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5

Contributors

Will de Bruin

Here are the module settings you can place in your ColdBox.cfc by using the validation settings structure:

validation = {
    // The third-party validation manager to use, by default it uses CBValidation.
    manager = "class path",
    // You can store global constraint rules here with unique names
    sharedConstraints = {
        name = {
            field = { constraints here }
        }
    }

}

You can also define constraints a-la-carte. Meaning you can create them on the fly or store them as JSON or somewhere in a service. As long as it is a struct of constraints, that's all the validation methods accept via the constraints argument.

In this sample we validate the public request context rc. This sample validates all fields in the rc. If you need more control you can specify the fields parameter (default all) or the includeFields and excludeFields parameters in your validate() call.

// sample REST API create user
    function create( event, rc, prc ){
        var validationResult = validate(
            target      = rc,
            constraints = {
                username : { required : true },
                email    : { required : true, type : "email" },
                password : { required : true }
            }
        )
        if ( !validationResult.hasErrors() ) {
            UserService.createUser( rc.username, rc.email, rc.password );
            prc.response.setData( UserService.readUser( username = rc.username ) );
        } else {
            prc.response
                .setError( true )
                .addMessage( validationResult.getAllErrors() )
                .setStatusCode( STATUS.BAD_REQUEST )
                .setStatusText( "Validation error" );
        }
    }

propertyName = {
        // The field under validation must be yes, on, 1, or true. This is useful for validating "Terms of Service" acceptance.
        accepted : any value,

        // The field must be alphanumeric ONLY
        alpha : any value,

        // discrete math modifiers
        discrete : (gt,gte,lt,lte,eq,neq):value

        // value in list
        inList : list,

        // max value
        max : value,

        // Validation method to use in the target object must return boolean accept the incoming value and target object 
        method : methodName,

        // min value
        min : value,

        // range is a range of values the property value should exist in
        range : eg: 1..10 or 5..-5,

        // regex validation
        regex : valid no case regex

        // required field or not, includes null values
        required : boolean [false],

        // The field under validation must be present and not empty if the `anotherfield` field is equal to the passed `value`.
        requiredIf : {
            anotherfield:value, anotherfield:value
        }

        // The field under validation must be present and not empty unless the `anotherfield` field is equal to the passed 
        requiredUnless : {
            anotherfield:value, anotherfield:value
        }

        // same as but with no case
        sameAsNoCase : propertyName

        // same as another property
        sameAs : propertyName

        // size or length of the value which can be a (struct,string,array,query)
        size  : numeric or range, eg: 10 or 6..8

        // specific type constraint, one in the list.
        type  : (alpha,array,binary,boolean,component,creditcard,date,email,eurodate,float,GUID,integer,ipaddress,json,numeric,query,ssn,string,struct,telephone,url,usdate,UUID,xml,zipcode),

        // UDF to use for validation, must return boolean accept the incoming value and target object, validate(value,target):boolean
        udf = variables.UDF or this.UDF or a closure.

        // Check if a column is unique in the database
        unique = {
            table : The table name,
            column : The column to check, defaults to the property field in check
        }

        // Custom validator, must implement coldbox.system.validation.validators.IValidator
        validator : path or wirebox id, example: 'mypath.MyValidator' or 'id:MyValidator'
}

accepted

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

terms = { accepted = true }

alpha

The field must be alphabetical ONLY

terms = { alpha = true }

discrete

The field must pass certain discrete math operations using the format: operator:value

• gt - Greater than the value

• gte - Greater than or equal to the value

• lt - Less than the value

• lte - Less than or equal to the value

• eq - Equal to the value

• neq - Not equal to the value

myField = { discrete = "gt:4" }
myField = { discrete = "eq:luis" }
myField = { discrete = "lte:1" }

inList

The field must be in the included list

myField = { inList = "red,green,blue" }

max

The field must be less than or equal to the defined value

myField = { max = 25 }

method

The methodName will be called on the target object and it will pass in validationData and targetValue. It must return a boolean response: true = pass, false = fail.

myField = { method = "methodName" }

function methodName( validationData, targetValue ){
    return true;
}

min

The field must be greater than or equal to the defined value

myField = { min = 8 }

range

The field must be within the range values and the validation data must follow the range pattern: min..max

myField = { range = "1..5" }
myField = { range = "5..-5" }

regex

The field must pass the regular expression match with no case sensitivity

myField = { regex = "^(sick|vacation|disability)$" }

required

The field must have some type of value and not null.

myField = { required=true }
myField = { required=false }

requiredIf

the field under validation must be present and not empty if the anotherfield field is equal to the passed value.

myField = { 
 requiredIf = {
  field2 = "test",
  field3 = "hello"
 }
}

requiredUnless

The field under validation must be present and not empty unless the anotherfield field is equal to the passed

myField = { 
 requiredUnless = {
  field2 = "test",
  field3 = "hello"
 }
}

sameAsNoCase

The field must be the same as another field with no case sensitivity

myField = { sameAs = "otherField" }

sameAs

The field must be the same as another field with case sensitivity

myField = { sameAs = "otherField" }

size

The field value size must be within the range values and the validation data must follow the range pattern: min..max. Value can be a (struct,string,array,query)

myField = { size : 10 }
myFiedl = { size : "8..20" }

type

One of the most versatile validators. It can test if the value is of the following specific types:

• alpha

• array

• binary

• boolean

• component

• creditcard

• date

• email

• eurodate

• float

• GUID

• integer

• ipaddress

• json

• numeric

• query

• ssn

• string

• struct

• telephone

• url

• usdate

• UUID

• xml

• zipcode

myField = { type : "float" }

udf

The field value will be passed to the declared closure/lambda to use for validation, must return boolean accept the incoming value and target object, validate(value,target):boolean

myField = { udf = function( value, target ) { return true; } }
myField = { udf = (value,target) => true }

unique

The field must be a unique value in a specific database table. The validation data is a struct with the following keys:

• table : The name of the table to check

• column : The column to check, defaults to the property field in check

myField = { unique = { table : "users", column : "username" } }

validator

myField = { validator = "UniqueValidator@cborm" }

Features

• No more manual discovery of validators, automated registration and lookup process, cleaned lots of code on this one!

• New Validator: Accepted - The field under validation must be yes, on, 1, or true. This is useful for validating "Terms of Service" acceptance.

• New Validator: Alpha - Only allows alphabetic characters

• New Validator: RequiredUnless with validation data as a struct literal { anotherField:value, ... } - The field under validation must be present and not empty unless the anotherfield field is equal to the passed value.

• New Validator: RequiredIf with validation data as a struct literal { anotherField:value, ... } - The field under validation must be present and not empty if the anotherfield field is equal to the passed value.

• Accelerated validation by removing type checks. ACF chokes on interface checks

Improvements

• Consistency on all validators to ignore null or empty values except the Required validator

• Formatting consistencies

• Improve error messages to describe better validation

• Get away from evaluate() instead use invoke()

Compat & Bugs

• Bugs : Fixed lots of wrong type exceptions

• Compat : Remove ACF11 support

We also setup lots of global {Key} replacements for your messages and also several that the core constraint validators offer as well. This is great for adding these customizations on your custom messages and also your i18n messages (Keep Reading):

Global Replacements

• {rejectedValue} - The rejected value

• {field or property} - The property or field that was validated

• {validationType} - The name of the constraint validator

• {validationData} - The value of the constraint definition, e.g size=5..10, then this value is 5..10

Validator Replacements

• {DiscreteValidator} - operation, operationValue

• {InListValidator} - inList

• {MaxValidator} - max

• {MinValidator} - min

• {RangeValidator} - range, min, max

• {RegexValidator} - regex

• {SameAsValidator}, {SameAsNoCaseValidator} - sameas

• {SizeValidator} - size, min, max

• {TypeValidator} - type

username = { 
    required="true", 
    requiredMessage="Please enter the {field}", 
    size="6-8", 
    sizeMessage="The username must be between {min} and {max} characters" 
}

In this section you will find the release notes for each version we release under this major version. If you are looking for the release notes of previous major versions use the version switcher at the top left of this documentation book. Here is a breakdown of our major version releases.

Within any domain object you can define a public variable called this.constraints that is a assigned an implicit structure of validation rules for any fields or properties in your object.

Declaration

We can then create the validation rules for the properties it will apply to it:

That easy! You can just declare these validation rules and ColdBox will validate your properties according to the rules. In this case you can see that a password must be between 6 and 10 characters long, and it cannot be blank.

Usage

You can then use them implicitly when calling our validation methods:

In cbValidation 1.5 we introduced the validateOrFail() function. This function works in similar manner to the validate() method, but instead of giving you the results object, it throws an exception of type ValidationException.

Exception Extended Info

So your validation fails, where are the results? In the exception structure under the extendedInfo key. We store the validation results as JSON in the extended info and then you can use them for display purposes:

Instructions

box install cbvalidation

The module will register several objects into WireBox using the @cbvalidation namespace. The validation manager is registered as ValidationManager@cbvalidation. It will also register several helper methods that can be used throughout the ColdBox application.

Mixins - Helper Methods

The module will also register two methods in your handlers/interceptors/layouts/views

• validate()

• validateOrFail()

• getValidationManager()

Validation Methods: validate(), validateOrFail()

Most likely you will be validating your objects at the controller layer in your ColdBox event handlers. All event handlers, layouts, views and interceptors have some new methods thanks to our module mixins.

You pass in your target object or structure, an optional list of fields or properties to validate only (by default it does all of them), and an optional constraints argument which can be the shared name or an actual constraints structure a-la-carte. If no constraints are passed, then we will look for the constraints in the target object as a public property called constraints. The validate() method returns a cbvalidation.models.results.IValidationResult type object, which you can then use for evaluating the validation.

Validation Results

The return of validate model is our results interface which has cool methods like and can be found under cbvalidation.models.result.IValidationResult

Validation Error Object

Some of these methods return error objects which adhere to our Error Interface: cbvalidation.models.result.IValidationError, which can quickly tell you what field had the exception, what was the rejected value and the validation message:

What are Constraints?

A constraint is by definition the following:

The state of being restricted or confined within prescribed bounds.

That is exactly what you will create for specific fields. You will declare the constraints for one or more fields. Each constraint will be composed of one or more validators and validation data. The validation data is defined by the validator and can be of any type, the default is an empty struct ({})

These constraints can then be defined in many locations where cbValidation can read them.

Defining Constraints

You can define constraints in several locations:

Constraints Discovery

When you call the validation methods with NO constraints passed explicitly, then the validation module will discover the constraints using the following:

• Lookup your constraints in myTarget.constraints struct in your target object or struct.

• If you specify your constraint parameter as a string, the validator will lookup a shared constraint in your configuration file definitions.

• If you specify your constraint parameter as a struct, this struct will directly serve as your set of constraints, so you can specify your constraints on the fly, or specify an alternative set of constraints in your model, e.g User.constraints vs User.signInConstraints

This module is a server side rules validation engine that can provide you with a unified approach to object, struct and form validation. You can construct validation constraint rules and then tell the engine to validate them accordingly. You can also create validation profiles to create a more complex validation schema for fields.

System Requirements

• Lucee 5+

• ColdFusion 2016+

Introduction

You can then use 2 simple validation methods and report on the results: validate(), validateOrFail()

Professional Open Source

• Custom Development

• Professional Support & Mentoring

• Training

• Server Tuning

• Security Hardening

• Code Reviews

HONOR GOES TO GOD ABOVE ALL

Because of His grace, this project exists. If you don't like this, then don't read it, it's not for you.

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:5

We also have the ability to validate a target object with custom a-la-carte constraints by passing the constraints inline as an struct of structs. This way you can store these constraint rules anywhere you like.

var myConstraints = {
	login = { required=true, size=6..10 }, 
	password = { required=true, size=6..10 }
};
prc.results = validateModel( target=user, constraints=myConstraints );

This will validate the object using the inline constraints that you built.

You can also tell the validation manager to ONLY validate on certain fields and not all the fields declared in the validation constraints.

prc.results = validateModel( target=user, fields="login,password" );

This will only validate the login and password fields.

Custom Includes/Excludes

You can also use the following arguments:

• includeFields : The fields to include in the validation ONLY

• excludeFields : The fields to exclude in the validation

prc.results = validateModel( 
    target=user, 
    includeFields="username,password", 
    excludeFields="id" 
);

The module will register several objects into WireBox using the @cbvalidation namespace. The validation manager is registered as ValidationManager@cbvalidation, which is the one you can inject and use anywhere you like.

// get reference
property name="validationManager" inject="ValidationManager@cbvalidation";

After validation you can use the same results object and use it to display the validation errors in your client side:

Handlers:

// store the validation results in the request collection
prc.validationResults = validate( obj );

Views:

<-- Display all errors as a message box --->
#getInstance( "MessageBox@cbMessagebox" )
    .renderMessage( type="error", messageArray=prc.validationResults.getAllErrors() )#

If you want more control you can use the hasErrors() and iterate over the errors to display:

<cfif prc.validationResults.hasErrors()>
    <ul>
    <cfloop array="#prc.validationResults.getErrors()#" index="thisError">
        <li>#thisError.getMessage()#</li>
    </cfloop>
    </ul>
</cfif>

You can even use the results object in your views to get specific field errors, messagesbox, etc.

Common Methods

The following are some common methods from the validation result object for dealing with errors:

• getResultMetadata()

• getFieldErrors( [field] )

• getAllErrors( [field] )

• getAllErrorsAsJSON( [field] )

• getAllErrorsAsStruct( [field] )

• getErrorCount( [field] )

• hasErrors( [field] )

• getErrors()

The API Docs in the module (once installed) will give you the latest information about these methods and arguments.

If the core validators are not sufficient for you, then you can create your own custom validators. You can either leverage the udf validator and create your own closure/lambda to validate inline or create a reusable validator CFC

Closure/Lambda Validator

If you use the udf validator, then you can declare your validation inline. Just create a closure/lambda that will be called for you at the time of validation. This closure/lambda will receive all the following arguments and MUST return a boolean indicator: true => passed, false => invalid

• value : The value to validate, can be null

• target : The object that is the target of validation

slug : { 
    required : true, 
    udf : ( value, target ) => {
        if( isNull( arguments.value ) ) return false;
        return qb.from( "content" )
            .where( "slug", arguments.value )
            .when( this.isLoaded(), ( q ) => {
                arguments.q.whereNotIn( "id", this.getId() );
            } )
            .count() == 0;
    }
},

Custom CFC Validator

You can also create a reusable CFC that can be shared in any ColdBox app as a validator. Create the CFC and it should implement our interface which can be found here: cbvalidation.models.validators.IValidator and it specifies just two functions your own validator must implement: getName(), validate():

/**
 * Copyright since 2020 by Ortus Solutions, Corp
 * www.ortussolutions.com
 * ---
 * The ColdBox validator interface, all inspired by awesome Hyrule Validation Framework by Dan Vega
 */
interface {

    /**
     * Will check if an incoming value validates
     * @validationResultThe result object of the validation
     * @targetThe target object to validate on
     * @fieldThe field on the target object to validate on
     * @targetValueThe target value to validate
     * @rules The rules imposed on the currently validating field
     */
    boolean function validate(
        required any validationResult,
        required any target,
        required string field,
        any targetValue,
        any validationData,
        struct rules
    );

    /**
     * Get the name of the validator
     */
    string function getName();

}

Here is a sample validator:

/**
 * Copyright since 2020 by Ortus Solutions, Corp
 * www.ortussolutions.com
 * ---
 * This validator validates if a value is is less than a maximum number
 */
component accessors="true" singleton {

    property name="name";

    /**
     * Constructor
     */
    MaxValidator function init(){
        variables.name = "Max";
        return this;
    }

    /**
     * Will check if an incoming value validates
     * @validationResultThe result object of the validation
     * @targetThe target object to validate on
     * @fieldThe field on the target object to validate on
     * @targetValueThe target value to validate
     * @validationDataThe validation data the validator was created with
     */
    boolean function validate(
        required any validationResult,
        required any target,
        required string field,
        any targetValue,
        any validationData,
        struct rules
    ){
        // return true if no data to check, type needs a data element to be checked.
        if ( isNull( arguments.targetValue ) || ( isSimpleValue( arguments.targetValue ) && !len( arguments.targetValue ) ) ) {
            return true;
        }

        // Max Tests
        if ( arguments.targetValue <= arguments.validationData ) {
            return true;
        }

        var args = {
            message        : "The '#arguments.field#' value is not less than or equal to #arguments.validationData#",
            field          : arguments.field,
            validationType : getName(),
            rejectedValue  : ( isSimpleValue( arguments.targetValue ) ? arguments.targetValue : "" ),
            validationData : arguments.validationData
        };
        var error = validationResult.newError( argumentCollection = args ).setErrorMetadata( { max : arguments.validationData } );
        validationResult.addError( error );
        return false;
    }

    /**
     * Get the name of the validator
     */
    string function getName(){
        return variables.name;
    }

}

Defining Custom Validators

You can use them in two approaches when defining them in your constraints:

1. Use the validator constraints which points to the Wirebox ID of your own custom validator object. Please note that if you use this approach you will not be able to pass validation data into the validator.

2. Use the WireBox ID as they key of your validator. Then you can pass your own validation data into the validator.

//sample custom validator constraints
    this.constraints = {
        // Approach #1
        myField = {
            required : true, 
            validator : "MyCustomID" 
        },

        // Approach #2
        myField2 = {
            required : true, 
            UniqueInMyDatabase : {
                column : "column_name",
                table : "table_name",
                dsn : "myDatasource"
            },
            MyTimezoneValidator : true
        }
     };

By default if a constraint fails an error message will be set in the result objects for you in English. If you would like to have your own custom messages for specific constraints you can do so by following the constraint message convention:

{constraintName}Message = "My Custom Message";

Just add the name of the constraint you like and append to it the word Message and you are ready to roll:

username = { 
    required="true", 
    requiredMessage="Please enter the username", 
    size="6-8", 
    sizeMessage="The username must be between 6 to 8 characters" 
}

Here is an example:

Declaration

validation = {
    sharedConstraints = {
        sharedUser = {
            fName = {required=true},
            lname = {required=true},
            age   = {required=true, max=18 }
            metadata = {required=false, type="json"}
        },
        loginForm = {
            username = {required=true}, password = {required=true}
        },
        changePasswordForm = {
            password = {required=true,min=6}, password2 = {required=true, sameAs="password", min=6}
        }
    }
}

As you can see, our constraints definition describes the set of rules for a property on ANY target object or form by unique key name.

Usage

You can then use the keys for those constraints in the validation calls:

validate( target, "sharedUser" );

validate( rc, "loginForm" );

validate( rc, "changePasswordForm" );

cbValidation 2.x series introduced the ability to validate using field profiles. This will allow you to define all your constraints but also define field profiles where you can define only certain fields to be validated if the profile name is used.

Defining Profiles

This is using the this.constraintProfiles struct literal:

The key is the name of the profile and the value is a list of the fields to validate if the profile is targeted for validation.

Validating Profiles

Every validation method: validate(), validateOrFail() has a profiles argument. You can then pass one or more to the argument so you can validate 1 or more profiles:

We also have the ability to validate a target object or form with shared constraints from our configuration file. Just use the name of the key in the configuration form as the name of the constraints argument.

Usage

box install cborm

Declaring the Constraint

The validator is mapped into WireBox as UniqueValidator@cborm so you can use in your constraints like so:

{ 
    fieldName : { validator: "UniqueValidator@cborm" },
    // or
    fieldName : { "UniqueValidator@cborm" : {}  }
}

Case Sensitivity

If you will be using this validator, then the name of the property has to be EXACTLY the same case as the constraint name. To do this, use single or double quotes to declare the constraint name. Please see example below.

this.constraints = {
  "username" = { required=true, validator: "UniqueValidator@cborm" },
  "email" = { required=true, validator: "UniqueValidator@cborm" }
};

Internationalization

If you are using i18n (Internationalization and Localization) in your ColdBox applications you can also localize your validation error messages from the ColdBox validators.

You will do this by our lovely conventions for you resource bundle keys:

Objects:

{ObjectName}.{Field}.{ConstraintType}}=Message

Forms with Shared Constraints Name

{SharedConstraintName}.{Field}.{ConstraintType}=Message

Forms with No Shared Constraints

GenericForm.{Field}.{ConstraintType}=Message

Key Replacements

We also setup lots of global {Key} replacements for your messages and also several that the core constraint validators offer as well:

Global Replacements

• {rejectedValue} - The rejected value

• {field} or property - The property or field that was validated

• {validationType} - The name of the constraint validator

• {validationData} - The value of the constraint definition, e.g size=5..10, then this value is 5..10

• {targetName} - The name of the user, shared constraint or form

i18n Validator Replacements

• {DiscreteValidator} - operation, operationValue

• {InListValidator} - inList

• {MaxValidator} - max

• {MinValidator} - min

• {RangeValidator} - range, min, max

• {RegexValidator} - regex

• {SameAsValidator}, {SameAsNoCaseValidator} - SameAs

• {SizeValidator} - size, min, max

• {TypeValidator} - type

Examples

blank=The field {property} must contain a value.
email=The field {property} is not a valid email address.
unique=The field {property} is not a unique value.
size=The field {property} was not in the size range of {size}.
inlist=The field {property} was not in the list of possible values.
validator=There was a problem with {property}.
min=The minimum value {min} was not met for the field {property}.
max=The maximum value {max} was exceeded for the field {property}.
range=The range was not met for the field {property}.
matches=The field {property} does not match {regex}.
numeric=The field {property} is not a valid number.

If you would like to adapt your own validation engines to work with ANY ColdBox application you can do this by implementing the following interfaces:

• Validation Manager : Implement the cbvalidation.models.IValidationManager. Then use the class path in your configuration file so it uses your validation manager instead of ours.

• Validation Results : Implement the cbvalidation.models.result.IValidationResult, which makes it possible for any ColdBox application to use your validation results.

• Validation Error : Implement the cbvalidation.models.result.IValidationError, which makes it possible for any ColdBox application to use your validation error representations.

Then map it in your configuration file:

validation = {
    // The third-party validation manager to use, by default it uses CBValidation.
    manager = "my.class.path"
}