bookshelf-validate

Validation for the Model objects of Bookshelf.js

Installation

npm install --save bookshelf-validate

Configuration

To initialize the plugin, call bookshelf.plugin('bookshelf-validate'[, config]); with your Bookshelf instance.

The config object is optional, and the defaults are:

{
  validator: require('validator'), // node-validator
  validateOnSave: false // Automatically validate when Bookshelf emits 'saving' event
}

config.validator

By default, the validation methods are provided by the validator npm package.

You can pass a different validator object, or customize node-validator by adding methods to it before passing it to the configuration. The only requirement is that every method on the validator object takes the value to be validated as the first argument.

Example by customizing validator:

var validator = require('validator');
 
validator.isPrime = function (str) {
  var value = parseInt(str);
  if (value === NaN || value < 2) return false;
 
  for (var i = 2; i <= value >> 1; i++) {
    if (value % i === 0) {
      return false;
    }
  }
};
 
bookshelf.plugin('bookshelf-validate', {
  validator: validator
});

config.validateOnSave

If validateOnSave is true, the validations will automatically be called when Bookshelf emits a 'saving' event. If any validations fail, an error will be thrown and the model will not be saved.

API

'isRequired'

Since node-validator does not look at undefined or null values, an optional validator isRequired is provided with the library. It is off by default.

Model.validations

To use bookshelf-validator in your models, you must add a validations key to your Bookshelf model. Each key of the validations object must be an attribute of the Bookshelf model. There are four ways to write the validations for each attribute, depending on the level of specifity you need to provide.

Option 1: Validation method name as string

var User = bookshelf.Model.extend({
  validations: {
    username: 'isRequired'
  }
});

Option 2: Validation method name as key in object

With this option, the values of the validation method name keys will be passed to the validation methods as arguments. An array of values may be passed for arbitrary-arity methods.

var User = bookshelf.Model.extend({
  validations: {
    username: {
      isRequired: true,
      isLength: [2, 32] // will call validator.isLength(value, 2, 32)
    }
  }
});

Option 3: Validation method with custom error message

With this option, if the validation fails, your custom error message will be returned instead of the default (the name of the method which failed validation). This is good if you want to send messages to the user about why validation failed.

var User = bookshelf.Model.extend({
  validations: {
    username: {
      method: 'isLength',
      error: 'Your username must be between 4 and 32 characters long.',
      args: [4, 32]
    }
  }
});

The error and args attributes are optional.

Option 4: An array with a combination of any of the above

For more complicated validations, you may pass an array that has a combination of strings and objects. If an object has an attribute called method it will be assumed to be type (3), otherwise it will be type (2). Since you will probably not name a validation method with the name method, it is unlikely there will be any problems.

var User = bookshelf.Model.extend({
  validations: {
    email: [
      'isRequired',
      { isEmail: {allow_display_name: true} }, // Options object passed to node-validator
      { method: 'isLength', error: 'Username 4-32 characters long.', args: [4, 32] } // Custom error message
    ]
  }
});

Model#validationErrors

Call validationErrors() on a model instance to see the results of your validation.

If there are any invalid attributes on your model, the result will be a ValidationError object containing an object of attributes and their errors on the data property.

If the validateOnSave: true option was configured, validationErrors() will be called automatically when you attempt to save the model. If not, you can call it yourself to see the errors before you save the model.

var bookshelf = require('bookshelf');
var validator = require('validator');
 
validator.isRequired = function (val) {
  return val != null;
}
 
bookshelf.plugin('bookshelf-validate', {
  validator: validator,
  validateOnSave: true
});
 
var User = bookshelf.Model.extend({
  tableName: 'users',
  validations: {
    // Username is required, and its length must be between 2 and 32 characters
    username: [
      'isRequired',
      { method: 'isLength', error: 'Username must be between 2 and 32 characters.', args: [2, 32] }
    ],
 
    // Email is required, and must be a valid e-mail address
    email: [
      'isRequired',
      { method: 'isEmail', error: 'Not a valid email address' }
    ],
 
    // Birthday is not required, but must be a date if given
    birthday: { isDate: true } // Same as `birthday: 'isRequired'`
  }
});
 
var user = new User({
  username: 'x', // Invalid length
  birthday: '1997-11-21', // Valid
  color: 'green' // Not validated
});
 
let errors = user.validationErrors();
console.log(errors);
/*
  [ValidationError]:
  {
    data: {
      username: ['Username must be between 2 and 32 characters'],
      email: ['isRequired']
    }
  }
/*

And, if validateOnSave is true:

user.save(); // Throws a ValidationError