Codeigniter 4 - Store validation rules in separate files - validation

Question

I have all my rules in the Validation config file, like the documentation suggest:
https://codeigniter4.github.io/userguide/libraries/validation.html#saving-sets-of-validation-rules-to-the-config-file
For example:
public $userCreate = [
'first_name' => [
'label' => 'First Name',
'rules' => 'required|string|max_length[60]'
],
'last_name' => [
'label' => 'Last Name',
'rules' => 'required|string|max_length[60]',
],
'email' => [
'label' => 'Auth.email',
'rules' => 'required|max_length[254]|valid_email|is_unique[users.email]',
],
];
In my controllers I can access my validation groups like this:
$validation = \Config\Services::validation();
$rules = $validation->getRuleGroup('userCreate');
As my app gets bigger, I need more and more validation rules, so the question is, is there a way to organize them in separate files and not to have all of them in a single config file? Something like the custom rules, which are loaded in the config file and stored separately.

Answer 1

Steps
Create a custom directory for storing your validation rules. I.e app/Validation.
Create a class under that directory for your 'User' rules. I.e: app/Validation/UserRules.php
<?php
namespace App\Validation;
class UserRules
{
public function create()
{
return [
'first_name' => [
'label' => 'First Name',
'rules' => 'required|string|max_length[60]'
],
'last_name' => [
'label' => 'Last Name',
'rules' => 'required|string|max_length[60]',
],
'email' => [
'label' => 'Auth.email',
'rules' => 'required|max_length[254]|valid_email|is_unique[users.email]',
],
];
}
public function update()
{
return [
// Add 'User' update rules here.
];
}
}
In the \Config\Validation config file, set the relevant 'User' validation rules in the constructor. I.e:
<?php
namespace Config;
use CodeIgniter\Config\BaseConfig;
// ...
class Validation extends BaseConfig
{
// --------------------------------------------------------------------
// Setup
// --------------------------------------------------------------------
public $userCreate = [];
public $userUpdate = [];
public function __construct()
{
$this->userCreate = ($userRules = new \App\Validation\UserRules())->create();
$this->userUpdate = $userRules->update();
}
// ...
}
In your Controllers, you may access validation groups as usual.

Answer 2

Thanks to #steven7mwesigwa I came up with a solution that suits me the most.
First I created separate classes inside the App/Validation folder. For example these 2 classes:
App\Validation\Auth.php
<?php
namespace App\Validation;
class Auth {
public $login = [
'email' => [
'label' => 'E-mail',
'rules' => 'required|max_length[254]|valid_email',
],
'password' => [
'label' => 'Password',
'rules' => 'required',
],
'remember' => [
'label' => 'Remember me',
'rules' => 'if_exist|permit_empty|integer',
]
];
}
App\Validation\User.php
<?php
namespace App\Validation;
class User {
public $userCreate = [
'first_name' => [
'label' => 'First Name',
'rules' => 'required|string|max_length[60]',
],
'last_name' => [
'label' => 'Last Name',
'rules' => 'required|string|max_length[60]',
],
'email' => [
'label' => 'E-mail',
'rules' => 'required|max_length[254]|valid_email|is_unique[users.email]',
],
];
}
The next step is to add a construct method to the existing validation config file:
App\Config\Validation.php
<?php
namespace Config;
use CodeIgniter\Config\BaseConfig;
class Validation extends BaseConfig {
...
// --------------------------------------------------------------------
// Rules
// --------------------------------------------------------------------
public function __construct() {
$ruleGroups = [
new \App\Validation\Auth(),
new \App\Validation\User(),
];
foreach ($ruleGroups as $ruleGroupClass) {
foreach ((array) $ruleGroupClass as $groupName => $rules) {
$this->{$groupName} = $rules;
}
}
}
}