Automated Validator Object, Usefulness?

Question

I am mulling over whether I should place metadata in an XML file, then creating an object that automates validation. The reasoning behind this is, adding or removing validation for user input would be a matter updating an XML file.

I was curious what the opinions of others were on the usefulness of automating field validation in PHP.

It seems these days, I'm having a tough time writing code without get consensus of other programmers. :-|

Answer 1

It really depends on what's standard in your particular application and/or framework. I'd personally stay away from doing something like that because most validations are fairly specific to the task at hand, and putting something like that in an xml file is really a mis-use of the format.

Automatic field validation itself is, of course, highly useful, and one of the features of great convenience in frameworks like Django.