Can Kohana 3's validation errors inherit?

Question

I've created a bunch of errors in a file under APPPATH/messages/validate.php with a bunch of common messages such as...

return array(
    'not_empty'    => ':field must not be empty.',
    'matches'      => ':field must be the same as :param1',
    'regex'        => ':field does not match the required format',
    'exact_length' => ':field must be exactly :param1 characters long',
    'min_length'   => ':field must be at least :param1 characters long',
    'max_length'   => ':field must be less than :param1 characters long',
    'in_array'     => ':field must be one of the available options',
    'digit'        => ':field must be a digit',
    'email'        => 'You must enter a valid email.',
    'name'         => 'You must enter your name.',
    'enquiry'      => 'You must enter your enquiry.',
    'captcha' => array (
        'Captcha::valid' => 'The characters you entered did not match the image. Please try again.',
        'not_empty' => 'You must enter the characters from the image.'
    ) 
);

This works great when I get errors like $errors = $post->errors('validate').

Is there a way to use these errors as base errors, and if I have a separate form which needs more, I can use a separate file with only the differences in it, for example it may look like

return array(
    'permissions'    => 'Please agree to the permissions',
);

So obviously, any email error message will come from validate.php (inherited), but any permissions error will come from the new file with the error definition for permissions.

I named the file validate.php because the inherit behaviour seems to work with the system folder and that is what it is called under SYSPATH/messages/validate.php (see it on GitHub).

Can my error messages inherit from a base file, or should I just copy all the error messages per form?

Answer 1

This is hacky, but it works!

$commonErrors = include APPPATH .  'messages/validate.php';

$errors =  array(
    'permission' => array(
        'not_empty' => 'You must give permission to continue.'
    )
);

return array_merge($commonErrors, $errors);

Basically, it auto inherits the base rules for you!

Answer 2

without "hacks":

    $orm->values($form[$this->name])->check();

    $not_model_errors = Validate::factory(array())->rule(NULL, 'permissions_rules'); // doesn't matter what args you send here, just meet the vartype
    // add test error
    $not_model_errors->error(NULL, 'test_error', array());

    $this->template->errors = $orm->validate()->errors('validation') + $not_model_errors->errors('permissions');

your model shouldn't validate your businesses logic.

Answer 3

Inheritance works automatically, follow this pattern:

1. Search for a field+error specific message in the given file
2. Search for a field+default message in the given file
3. Search for a generic message in the given file
4. Search for a generic message in validate file

So, if you overload the validate file and change the default messages, then inheritance will work as expected.

Answer 4

common errors: APPPATH/messages/validate.php

return array(
    'email'        => 'You must enter a valid email.',
    'name'         => 'You must enter your name.',
    'enquiry'      => 'You must enter your enquiry.',
    'captcha' => array (
        'Captcha::valid' => 'The characters you entered did not match the image. Please try again.',
        'not_empty' => 'You must enter the characters from the image.'
    )
);

specific errors: APPPATH/messages/specific.php

return array(
    'permissions'    => 'Please agree to the permissions',
);

Kohana uses these sequence to find the message: APPPATH/messages/specific.php, APPPATH/messages/validate.php and SYSPATH/messages/validate.php

print_r(validate->errors('specific'));