NAME

Oogly - Oogly - A Data validation idea that just might be ideal!

VERSION

version 0.01

METHODS

new The new method instantiates a new Oogly or Oogly package instance.

field The field function defines the validation rules for the specified parameter it is named after. e.g. field 'some_data' => {...}, validates against the value of the hash reference where the key is `some_data`.

field 'some_param' => {
    mixin => 'default',
    validation => sub {
        my ($v, $this, $params) = @_;
        $v->error($this, "...")
            if ...
    }
};

mixin The mixin function defines validation rule templates to be later reused by more specifically defined fields.

mixin 'default' => {
    required    => 1,
    min_length  => 4,
    max_length  => 255
};

error The error function is used to set and/or retrieve errors encountered or set during validation. The error function with no parameters returns the error message arrayref which can be used to output a single concatenated error message a with delimeter.

$self->error() # returns an array of errors
join '<br/>', $self->error(); # html-break delimeted errors
$self->error('some_param'); # show parameter-specific error messages arrayref
$self->error($this, "$name must conform ..."); # set error, see `field` function

errors The errors function is a synonym for the error function.

check_mixin The check_mixin function is used internally to validate the defined keys and values of mixins.

check_field The check_field function is used internally to validate the defined keys and values of fields.

use_mixin The use_mixin function sequentially applies defined mixin parameteres (as templates)to the specified field.

use_mixin_field The use_mixin_field function copies the properties (directives) of a specified field to the target field processing copied mixins along the way.

validate The validate function sequentially checks the passed-in field names against their defined validation rules and returns undef or 1.

basic_validate The basic_validate function processes the pre-defined contraints e.g., required, min_length, max_length, etc.

SYNOPSIS Oogly is a different approach to data validation, it attempts to simplify and centralize data validation rules to ensure DRY (don't repeat yourself) code. PLEASE NOTE! It is not the intent of this module to provide validation routines but instead to provide simplistic validation flow-control, and promote code reuse. The following is an example of that...

use MyApp::Validation;
my $app = MyApp::Validation->new(\%params);
if ($app->validate('login', 'password')){
    ...
}

package MyApp::Validation
use Oogly;

# define a mixin, a sortof template that can be included with other rules
# by using the mixin directive
mixin 'default' => {
    required    => 1,
    min_length  => 4,
    max_length  => 255
};

# define a data validation rule for parameter `login` using the default
# mixin where the `login` must be between 4-255 characters long and have
# at least one letter and number
field 'login' => {
    label => 'user login',
    mixin => 'default',
    validation => sub {
        my ($self, $this, $params) = @_;
        my ($name, $value) = ($this->{name}, $this->{value});
        $self->error($this, "field $name must contain at least one letter and number")
            if ($value !~ /[a-zA-Z]/ && $value !~ /[0-9]/);
    }
};

# define a data validation rule for parameter `password` using the
# previously defined field `login` as the mixin (template)
field 'password' => {
    mixin_field => 'login',
    label => 'user password'
};

AUTHOR

Al Newkirk <awnstudio@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2010 by Al Newkirk.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.