validator

Macros 1.1 custom derive to simplify struct validation inspired by marshmallow and Django validators. It relies on the proc_macro feature which is stable since Rust 1.15.

By default all args to a validate must be strings if you are using stable. However, if you are using nightly, you can also activate the attr_literals feature to be able to use int, float and boolean as well.

A short example:

#[macro_use]
extern crate validator_derive;
extern crate validator;
#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_derive;
extern crate serde_json;

// A trait that the Validate derive will impl
use validator::{Validate, ValidationError};

#[derive(Debug, Validate, Deserialize)]
struct SignupData {
    #[validate(email)]
    mail: String,
    #[validate(phone)]
    phone: String,
    #[validate(url)]
    site: String,
    #[validate(length(min = "1"), custom = "validate_unique_username")]
    #[serde(rename = "firstName")]
    first_name: String,
    #[validate(range(min = "18", max = "20"))]
    age: u32,
}

fn validate_unique_username(username: &str) -> Result<(), ValidationError> {
    if username == "xXxShad0wxXx" {
        // the value of the username will automatically be added later
        return Err(ValidationError::new("terrible_username"));
    }

    Ok(())
}

match signup_data.validate() {
  Ok(_) => (),
  Err(e) => return e;
};

The validate() method returns a Result<(), ValidationErrors>. In the case of an invalid result, the ValidationErrors instance includes a map of errors keyed against the struct's field names. Errors may be represented in three ways, as described by the ValidationErrorsKind enum:

#[derive(Debug, Serialize, Clone, PartialEq)]
#[serde(untagged)]
pub enum ValidationErrorsKind {
    Struct(Box<ValidationErrors>),
    List(BTreeMap<usize, Box<ValidationErrors>>),
    Field(Vec<ValidationError>),
}

In the simple example above, any errors would be of the Field(Vec<ValidationError>) type, where a single ValidationError has the following structure:

#[derive(Debug, PartialEq, Clone, Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct ValidationError {
  pub code: Cow<'static, str>,
  pub message: Option<Cow<'static, str>>,
  pub params: HashMap<Cow<'static, str>, Value>,
}

The value of the field will automatically be added to the params with a key of value.

Note that validator works in conjunction with serde: in the example we can see that the first_name field is renamed from/to firstName. Any error on that field will be in the firstName key of the hashmap, not first_name.

If you are adding a validation on a Option<..> field, it will only be ran if there is a value. The exception being must_match that doesn't currently work with Option due to me not finding a use case for it. If you have one, please comment on https://github.com/Keats/validator/issues/7.

The other two ValidationErrorsKind types represent errors discovered in nested (vectors of) structs, as described in this example:

#[macro_use]
extern crate validator_derive;
extern crate validator;
#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_derive;
extern crate serde_json;

#[derive(Debug, Validate, Deserialize)]
struct SignupData {
   #[validate]
   contact_details: ContactDetails,
   #[validate]
   preferences: Vec<Preference>
}

#[derive(Debug, Validate, Deserialize)]
struct ContactDetails {
   #[validate(email)]
   mail: String,
   #[validate(phone)]
   phone: String
}

#[derive(Debug, Validate, Deserialize)]
struct Preference {
   #[validate(length(min = "4"))]
   name: String,
   value: bool,
}

match signup_data.validate() {
 Ok(_) => (),
 Err(e) => return e;
};

Here, the ContactDetails and Preference structs are nested within the parent SignupData struct. Because these child types also derive Validate, the fields where they appear can be tagged for inclusion in the parent struct's validation method.

Any errors found in a single nested struct (the contact_details field in this example) would be returned as a Struct(Box<ValidationErrors>) type in the parent's ValidationErrors result.

Any errors found in a vector of nested structs (the preferences field in this example) would be returned as a List(BTreeMap<usize, Box<ValidationErrors>>) type in the parent's ValidationErrors result, where the map is keyed on the index of invalid vector entries.

Usage

You will need to import the Validate trait, and optionally use the attr_literals feature.

The validator crate can also be used without the custom derive as it exposes all the validation functions and types.

Validators

The crate comes with some built-in validators and you can have several validators for a given field.

email

Tests whether the String is a valid email according to the HTML5 regex, which means it will mark some esoteric emails as invalid that won't be valid in a email input as well. This validator doesn't take any arguments: #[validate(email)].

url

Tests whether the String is a valid URL. This validator doesn't take any arguments: #[validate(url)];

length

Tests whether a String or a Vec match the length requirement given. length has 3 integer arguments:

• min
• max
• equal

Using equal excludes the min or max and will result in a compilation error if they are found.

At least one argument is required with a maximum of 2 (having min and max at the same time).

Examples:

#[validate(length(min = "1", max = "10"))]
#[validate(length(min = "1"))]
#[validate(length(max = "10"))]
#[validate(length(equal = "10"))]

range

Tests whether a number is in the given range. range takes 2 number arguments: min and max.

Examples:

#[validate(range(min = "1", max = "10"))]
#[validate(range(min = "1", max = "10.8"))]
#[validate(range(min = "1.1", max = "10.8"))]

must_match

Tests whether the 2 fields are equal. must_match takes 1 string argument. It will error if the field mentioned is missing or has a different type than the field the attribute is on.

Examples:

#[validate(must_match = "password2")]

contains

Tests whether the string contains the substring given or if a key is present in a hashmap. contains takes 1 string argument.

Examples:

#[validate(contains = "gmail")]

regex

Tests whether the string matches the regex given. regex takes 1 string argument: the path to a static Regex instance.

Examples:

#[validate(regex = "ALLOWED_USERNAMES_RE")]

credit_card

Test whether the string is a valid credit card number.

Examples:

#[validate(credit_card)]

phone

Tests whether the String is a valid phone number (in international format, ie. containing the country indicator like +14152370800 for an US number — where 4152370800 is the national number equivalent, which is seen as invalid). To use this validator, you must enable the phone feature for the validator_derive crate. This validator doesn't take any arguments: #[validate(phone)];

custom

Calls one of your function to do a custom validation. The field will be given as parameter and it should return a Option<String> representing the error code, if there was an error.

Examples:

#[validate(custom = "validate_something")]
#[validate(custom = "::utils::validate_something")]

nested

Performs validation on a field with a type that also implements the Validate trait (or a vector of such types).

Examples:

#[validate]

Struct level validation

Often, some error validation can only be applied when looking at the full struct, here's how it works here:

#[derive(Debug, Validate, Deserialize)]
#[validate(schema(function = "validate_category", skip_on_field_errors = "false"))]
struct CategoryData {
    category: String,
    name: String,
}

The function mentioned should return a Option<(String, String)> where the tuple is (key error, error code) and will be called after validation is done for all fields. This means that the error can be reported on an existing field or on a new key.

The skip_on_field_errors defaults to true if not present and will ensure that the function is not called if an error happened while validating the struct fields.

Any error on the schema level validation will appear in the key __all__ of the hashmap of errors.

Message and code

Each validator can take 2 optional arguments in addition to their own arguments:

• message: a message to go with the error, for example if you want to do i18n
• code: each validator has a default error code (for example the regex validator code is regex) but it can be overriden if necessary, mainly needed for the custom validator

For example, the following attributes all work:

#[validate(email)]
#[validate(email(code="mail"))]
#[validate(email(message="Email %s is not valid"))]
#[validate(email(code="mail", message="Email %s is not valid"))]

Changelogs

validator

0.8.0 (2018/09/19)

• Change error type to allow use with nested validation

0.7.1 (2018/07/27)

• Make validators work on Cow

0.7.0 (2018/05/29)

• Feature gate the card validator

0.6.2 (2017/11/08)

• Fix credit card validation being incorrect in enum

0.6.1 (2017/11/08)

• Add international phone number and credit card validation

0.6.0 (2017/08/12)

• Re-design ValidationError and Validate trait

validator_derive

0.8.0 (2018/09/19)

• Allow nested validation

0.7.2 (2018/07/27)

• Make validators work on Cow

0.7.1 (2018/06/28)

• Update dependencies

0.7.0 (2018/05/29)

• Feature gate the card validator

0.6.5 (2018/04/14)

• Fix path for regex starting with ::
• Update syn and quote

0.6.4 (2018/03/20)

• Support Option<Option<T>> types

0.6.3 (2018/03/19)

• Fix path for custom validators starting with ::

0.6.2 (2018/03/17)

• Update syn and quote

0.6.1 (2017/11/08)

• Add international phone number and credit card derive

0.6.0 (2017/08/12)

• Change generated code to make the new design of errors work

Previous

0.5.0 (2017/05/22) > validator_derive only

• Fix range validator not working on Option
• Update to serde 1.0

0.4.1 (2017/02/14) > validator_derive only

• Fix potential conflicts with other attributes

0.4.0 (2017/01/30)

• Validators now work on Option field and struct/fields with lifetimes

0.3.0 (2017/01/17)

• Add contains and regex validator
• BREAKING: change Errors type to be a newtype in order to extend it

0.2.0 (2017/01/17)

• Remove need for attr_literals feature
• Fix error when not having validation on each field
• Add struct level validation
• Add must_match validator