laravel : sanitize request data before validation - validation

Question

there is a UpdateUserRequest form request that verify fields value against its rules defined in rules mathod .it has rules() and authorize() methods by default. i want prevent verifying and updating empty fields (such as password) .
using sometimes in rules is not useful as html inputs will be present in POST request even if they are empty.
array:6 [▼
"_method" => "PATCH"
"_token" => "Cz79rRez2f6MG0tTU17nVwXD0X1lNGH1hA7OORjm"
"name" => "john"
"email" => "mymail#gmail.com"
"password" => ""
"password_confirmation" => ""
]
so i should remove empty keys of POST request before using sometimes in rules.
the question is : Where is the best place to purge Request array?
is there any laravel build in method to manage such situations?
P.S :Solution:
#Bogdon solution is still valid and works, but there is another simple ,nice ,neat solution adopted from here:
just override all() method inside form request
class RegistrationRequest extends Request
{
...
public function all()
{
$attributes = parent::all();
if(isset($attributes['password']) && empty($attributes['password']))
{
unset($attributes['password']);
}
$this->replace($attributes);
return parent::all();
}
...
}

Answer 1

To make this work you'll need to modify the contents of the App\Http\Requests\Request class to allow a way to sanitize the input (class code taken from this Laracasts post):
namespace App\Http\Requests;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
abstract class Request extends FormRequest
{
/**
* Validate the input.
*
* #param \Illuminate\Validation\Factory $factory
* #return \Illuminate\Validation\Validator
*/
public function validator($factory)
{
return $factory->make(
$this->sanitizeInput(), $this->container->call([$this, 'rules']), $this->messages()
);
}
/**
* Sanitize the input.
*
* #return array
*/
protected function sanitizeInput()
{
if (method_exists($this, 'sanitize'))
{
return $this->container->call([$this, 'sanitize']);
}
return $this->all();
}
}
After that you just need to write add sanitize method in the UpdateUserRequest class that removes the password field from the input when it's empty:
public function sanitize()
{
if (empty($this->get('password'))) {
// Get all input
$input = $this->all();
// Remove the password field
unset($input['password']);
// Replace the input with the modified one
$this->replace($input);
}
return $this->all();
}
Now using the sometimes rule for the password field will work:
public function rules()
{
return [
// Other rules go here
'password' => 'sometimes|required|confirmed'
];
}

Answer 2

I'm not sure about the best way to purge the fields, but this is how I currently handle user updates on my system.
I find the user based on the $id passed through and then update the appropriate records. I assume that name and email will never be empty, it is only the password that can be empty - and so we can just set the name and email fields to the values passed in and then use an if statement to check if the password field is empty or not and update accordingly.
Something along the lines of this is what I use:
public function update($id)
{
$user = User::find($id);
$user->name = Input::get('name');
$user->email = Input::get('email');
if (Input::get('password') != "")
{
$user->password = Hash::make(Input::get('password'));
}
$user->save();
}