How to validate a post request without a specific attribute to validate.

I have a time tracking application where every time that a new Time Entry is about to be added, I must first verify that all the previous time entries have been closed (meaning that an ending date has been set) and throw and error message using the validate() method.

I don't know how feasable this is or how to do it, reading the documentation it seems that most custome rules require that an attribute be given, but in this case it's more about validating the logical requirements rather than the form of the post request.

When I receive a post request I fetch all previous time entries which come before the post request starting time and have not yet been given an ending time.

Ideally, if I get any time entries returned I would throw an error saying 'You need to close the previous time entry before opening a new one'.

For more clarity, here is what I want to do in code :

$timeEntry= new TimeEntry;
$openTimeEntries = $timeEntry->Where('start_time', '<', $request->startTime)->Where('end_time', 0)->get();
$count = $openTimeEntries->count();

$request->validate([
    'comment' => 'string',
    'candidateId' => 'required',
    'startTime' => 'required|date',
    'endTime' => 'date|nullable|after:startTime',
    'CustomeTimeEntryRule' => $openTimeEntries->count() > 0, // If false I want this rule to add the message to the validate error array
]);

SilenceBringer

4 years ago

Best Answer

Level 55

@ldcoding you can merge additional data to request https://laravel.com/docs/9.x/requests#merging-additional-input

$request->merge([
	'CustomeTimeEntryRule' => $openTimeEntries->count(),
]);

$request->validate([
	// ...
	'CustomeTimeEntryRule' => 'in:0',
], [
	'CustomeTimeEntryRule.in' => 'Your validation message' 
]);

1 like

LdCoding

4 years ago

Level 1

@SilenceBringer I think this is exactly what I needed. I will try this out and get back to you, thanks.

Snapey

4 years ago

Level 122

You can throw a separate validation exception, before or after checking the fields.

        if($openTimeEntries->count() > 0) {
            throw ValidationException::withMessages([
                'Incomplete' => ['You still have open time entries],
            ]);
        }

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