/ 
WWW-Form-1.20
River stage zero No dependents
/ WWW::FieldValidator

NAME

WWW::FieldValidator

VERSION

version 1.20

SYNOPSIS

OO module that is used to validate input.

DESCRIPTION

This module is used by WWW::Form to perform various validations on input. This document covers using the WWW::FieldValidator module as part of a Form object. In this case, the only thing you need to know how to do is to instantiate WWW::FieldValidators properly. All the validation is handled internally by WWW::Form.

NAME

WWW::FieldValidator - Provides simple validation of user entered input

USAGE

my $validator = WWW::FieldValidator->new($validatorType,$errorFeedback, [$minLength, $maxLength, $regex], [$isOptional])

Creates a FieldValidator object. $validatorType is used to determine what type of validation will be performed on the input. The following validator types are supported (Note these are constants, the $validatorType param needs to be one of the following values):

# Input must conform to /^[\w\-\.\+]+@(\w+)(\.([\w\-]+))+$/
WWW::FieldValidator::WELL_FORMED_EMAIL
# Input must be >= a specified string length
WWW::FieldValidator::MIN_STR_LENGTH
# Input must be <= a specified string length
WWW::FieldValidator::MAX_STR_LENGTH
# Input must match a user defined regex
WWW::FieldValidator::REGEX_MATCH
# Input must pass a user defined subroutine's validation
WWW::FieldValidator::USER_DEFINED_SUB

Examples:

# Create a validator that checks to see if input is a well formed email
# address
WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::WELL_FORMED_EMAIL,
    'Please make sure you enter a well formed email address'
);

# Creates a validator that checks to see if input is well formed only if
# input is not null (or numm string)
WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::WELL_FORMED_EMAIL,
    'Please make sure you enter a well formed email address',
    $isOptional = 1
);

# Creates a validator that checks to see if the input is at least min length
WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::MIN_STR_LENGTH,
    'Please make sure you enter something at least 10 characters long',
    10
);

# Creates a validator that checks to see if the input is at least min length
# only if input is not null or null string
WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::MIN_STR_LENGTH,
    'Please make sure you enter something at least 10 characters long',
    10,
    1
);

# Creates a validator that checks to see if the input is less than max
# length
WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::MAX_STR_LENGTH,
    'Please enter something less than or equal to 5 characters',
    5
);

# Creates a validator that checks to see if the input is less than max
# length only if input is not null or null string
WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::MAX_STR_LENGTH,
    'Please enter something less than or equal to 5 characters',
    5,
    1
);

# Creates a validator that checks to see if the input matches the specified
# regex
WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::REGEX_MATCH,
    'Please make sure you enter a number',
    ^\d+$|^\d+\.\d*$|^\d*\.\d+$'
);

# Creates a validator that checks to see if the input matches the
# specified regex only if input is not null or null string
WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::REGEX_MATCH,
    'If you\'re going to enter anything, please enter a number',
    ^\d+$|^\d+\.\d*$|^\d*\.\d+$',
    1
);


# Creates a validator that checks to see if the input is good according to
# sub ref
WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::USER_DEFINED_SUB,
    'The name you entered already exists',
    \&is_name_unique
);

# Creates a validator that checks to see if the input is good according to
# sub ref only if input is not null or null string
WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::USER_DEFINED_SUB,
    'If you\'re entering a name, enter one that doesn\'t already exist',
    \&is_name_unique,
    1
);

# If you use the validator type: USER_DEFINED_SUB, your subroutine will have
# access to the value of the form input that your validator is assigned to

sub is_name_unique {
    # gets passed in to this sub for you by way of Form module
    my $name = shift;

    if ($names->{$name}) {
        return 0; # name already exists, input is invalid
    }
    else {
        return 1;
    }
}

If you want to use WWW::FieldValidator outside of WWW::Form it's easy to do. The only method you need to use is validate.

$validator->validate($input)

Returns true if $input passes validation or false otherwise.

Example:

my $email_validator = WWW::FieldValidator->new(
    WWW::FieldValidator::WELL_FORMED_EMAIL,
    'Please make sure you enter a well formed email address'
);

my $params = $r->param();

if (my $email = $params->{email}) {

    unless ($email_validator->validate($email)) {
        print $email_validator->getFeedback();
    }
}

$validator->getFeedback()

Returns error feedback for a FieldValidator. This can also be called as get_feedback().

$validator->get_feedback()

An alias for get_feedback().

SEE ALSO

WWW::Form

TODO

Update email validation to use Email:Valid module under-the-hood. (Note that this can be done with the current version of FieldValidator via the use of a user-defined validation type.)

LICENSE

This program is free software. You may copy or redistribute it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHOR

Shlomi Fish <shlomif@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2003 by Benjamin Schmaus.

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