Web developer, PHP, Ruby, Java, Mootools, Flex

Today, I’d like to talk about validating form data with Zend.  Traditionally, validating form data in PHP is quite a cumbersome task, especially when it comes to validating email addresses. We might detect characters such as (\w+@[a-zA-Z_]+?\.[a-zA-Z]{2,6}) and then either send the data back to the user to re enter data or use str_replace() to get rid of the unwanted characters.  The beauty of Zend however, means that we can deal with this task with ease. See below:

    /**
     * Validate the new user data
     * 
     * @param array $data
     */
    protected function validate(array $data)
    {
        $emailValidator = new Zend_Validate_EmailAddress();

        if($emailValidator->isValid($data['username']) && $data['password'] == $data['verify_password']){
            return true;
        } else{
            throw new Exception("Please ensure that your passwords match and that you have used a valid email address");
        }
    }
									

This is a simple custom function which I have written to validate a “register user” form. Firstly, we pass in the post data to the function this can be done as follows:

// The Zend way
$data = $this->_request->getPost()

// The traditional way
$data = $_POST;
									

We then create a new instance of the Zend email validator

$emailValidator = new Zend_Validate_EmailAddress();
									

We then run the email address through the validator using a simple if statement and the isValid() method of the validator object.

if($emailValidator->isValid($data['username']) && $data['password'] == $data['verify_password']){
            return true;
        } else{
            throw new Exception("Please ensure that your passwords match and that you have used a valid email address");
        }
									

If all is well, we return true if there is a fault, we throw an Exception. Simple as that.

There are tons of validators for Zend. Some of them are:

• Zend_Validate_Alpha
• Zend_Validate_Alnum
• Zend_Validate_Db_RecordExists
• Zend_Validate_Iban

For a full list, check out the documentation over at http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.validate.set.html