order-matter-validator

An object validator for Javascript ES6, validate your object by defining order-matter and extensible validation schema.

• Usage
• Order-matter schema
• Extensibility
• One-job rules
• Rules
  • defined
  • len
  • minlen
  • maxlen
  • min
  • max
  • pattern
  • truthy
  • type
  • in
  • nin
• Todos

Usage

const validate = require('order-matter-validator.js');

// extensible with custom rules
validate.use('unique-user', require('../utils/is-unique-username'));

// order-matter schema
const schema = [
  ['user', 'type', 'string', 'username must be a string'],
  ['user', 'minlen', 6, 'username must be at least 6 characters'],
  ['user', 'unique-user', 'username must be unique'] // using the custom rule
];

validate(object, schema, err => {
  if (err) {
    console.log(err.path); // field path
    console.log(err.value); // field value
    console.log(err.rule.name); // rule name
    console.log(err.rule.opts); // rule options
    console.log(err.rule.desc); // rule description
  } else {
    // err is null when no validation error
  }
});

Order-matter schema

Why ? Let's consider a non-order-matter schema example below:

const schema = {
  user: {
    type: 'string',
    minlen: 6,
    uniqueUser: true
  },
  pass: {
    type: 'string',
    minlen: 6
  }
}

So how the underground code know the order of validated fields (user and pass here) or the order of rules (type, minlen and uniqueUser here) ?

In other words, you want to validate user first, then pass; the rule type first before minlen, but how to present those things to the underground code ?

And remember, we can't rely on the order of object definition, just because the specification of JS doesn't specify that (read more: http://stackoverflow.com/a/5525812).

Extensibility

This module only includes some basic built-in rules, they never be enough for our need.

To use a custom rule, for example, a rule that ensures an username is unique:

is-unique-username.js:

/**
 * A rule impl should accept 3 parameters.
 * The first, the validated value.
 * The second, additional options.
 * The third, the callback.
 *
 * `cb(true)`` meaning the value is valid.
 * `cb(false)` meaning the value is invalid.
 *
 * That's it!
 */
module.exports = function (username, opts, cb) {
  User.findOne({username}, (err, user) => {
    if (err) throw err;
    cb(!user);
  })
}

signup.js:

const validate = require('order-matter-validator.js');
validate.use('unique-user', require('../utils/is-unique-username'));

const schema = [
  ['user', 'unique-user', 'username must be unique']
];

validate({username: 'thenewvu'}, schema, (err) => {
  if (err) {
    // do something
  } else {
    // do something
  }
})

One-job rules

Before talking about one-job rules, lets talk about more-than-one-job rules, for example, validating when users are updating their profile, clients sends only changed fields to the server and the server need to validate them:

const schema = [
  ['phone', 'pattern', config.regex.phone, 'invalid phone number'],
  ['email', 'pattern', config.regex.email, 'invalid email']
];

validate(profile, schema, (err) => {
  // do something on err
})

The problem here is, only changed fields are sent to the server, therefore they're all optional and can be undefined, this makes the rule pattern can not validate undefined as an invalid value.

To solve this problem in a flexible way, all rules should have only one job. All rules should only validate the value if it matches some pre-condition, if it's not, just act as it's valid and let other rules does their job.

For example, these rules, len, minlen and maxlen only validates the value if it's an actual number; pattern only validates the value if it's a string, so on. If you want to validate the type of the field value, let the rule type does its job.

Rules

defined

Ensure a field is defined. It's defined only when it's not undefined. Even null is defined.

This rule has not opts, so just ignore it in the schema.

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'defined', 'description']
];

len

Ensure the length of an array or a string equal to a given length.

If the value is not an array or a string, there's no validation error. If the field is mandatory, you should combine this rule with type.

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'type', 'array', 'description'],
  ['path.to.field', 'len', 3, 'description']
]

minlen

Ensure the length of an array or a string respect a given minimum length.

If the value is not an array or a string, there's no validation error. If the field is mandatory, you should combine this rule with type.

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'type', 'string', 'description'],
  ['path.to.field', 'minlen', 6, 'description']
]

maxlen

Ensure the length of an array or a string respect a given maximum length.

If the value is not an array or a string, there's no validation error. If the field is mandatory, you should combine this rule with type.

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'type', 'string', 'description'],
  ['path.to.field', 'maxlen', 30, 'description']
]

min

Ensure a number respect a given minimum value.

If the value is not a number, there's no validation error. If the field is mandatory, you should combine this rule with 'type'.

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'type', 'number', 'description'],
  ['path.to.field', 'min', 13, 'description']
]

max

Ensure a number respect a given maximum value.

If the value is not a number, there's no validation error. If the field is mandatory, you should combine this rule with 'type'.

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'type', 'number', 'description'],
  ['path.to.field', 'max', 100, 'description']
]

pattern

Ensure a string respect a given pattern.

If the value is not a string, there's no validation error. If the field is mandatory, you should combine this rule with 'type'.

The pattern can be a literal regexp (/^\w+$/) or a RegExp instance (new RegExp('^\\w+$')).

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'type', 'string', 'description'],
  ['path.to.field', 'pattern', /^\w+$/, 'description']
]

truthy

Ensure a value is truthy.

A value is truthy if it's not one of below values:

• false
• 0 (zero)
• "" (empty string)
• null
• undefined
• NaN (a special Number value meaning Not-a-Number!)
• [] (empty array)

This rule has no opts, just ignore it in the schema.

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'truthy', 'description'],
]

type

Ensure a value has a type.

The type of the value will be evaluated by typeof operator.

Below are supported types:

• number
• string
• function
• symbol
• undefined
• object

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'type', 'number', 'description']
]

in

Ensure a value is in an array.

If the value is undefined, there is no validation error. If the field is mandatory, you should combine this rule with the rule type.

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'in', [1, 2, 3], 'description']
]

nin

Ensure a value is not in an array.

If the value is undefined, there is no validation error. If the field is mandatory, you should combine this rule with the rule type.

const schema = [
  ['path.to.field', 'nin', [1, 2, 3], 'description']
]

Todos

• [x] Add in rule
• [x] Throw if rule opts is invalid
• [x] Add nin rule