Is there a nice way to re-use groups of validation rules?

[ziadoz]

I have several groups of validation rules, messages and request preparation that I need to re-use in various request validators.

The solution I came up with was to write a new "rule set" class:

class MyRuleSet
{
    public function rules(): array
    {
        return [
            // Dozens of rules validating prepared fields...
        ];
    }

    public function messages(): array
    {
        return [
            // Dozens of messages...
        ];
    }

    public function prepare(Request $request): array
    {
        $groupedIds = Ids::groupByType($this->input('ids'));

        $this->merge([
            'type_a_ids' => $groupedIds['type_a'],
            'type_b_ids' => $groupedIds['type_b'],
            // And so on...
        ]);
    }
}

And then splatting those into my validators as needed:

class MyValidator extends FormRequest
{
    public function rules(): array
    {
        return [
            ...(new MyRuleSet)->rules(),
            // Other rules...
        ];
    }

    public function messages(): array
    {
        return [
            ...(new MyRuleSet)->messages(),
            // Other messages...
        ];
    }

    public function prepareForValidation(): void
    {
        (new MyRuleSet)->prepare($this);
        // Other preparation...
    }

This works fine, but it feels like I'm bending Laravel against its will slightly. Is there a sensible and Laravel-ish way of doing this?

[shaedrich]

Depends on what you want to achieve. You could

1. use config files for this:
   config/validation.php

<?php
// basic validation rules
return [
    'id' => 'uuid',
    'slug' => 'string',
];

app/Http/SomeFormRequest.php

<?php

namespace App\Http;

class SomeFormRequest
{
    public function rules(): array
    {
        return config('validation');
    }
}

or
config/validation.php

<?php
// basic validation rules
return [
    'a' => [
        'id' => 'uuid',
        'slug' => 'string',
    ],
    'b' => [
        'id' => 'integer',
        'label' => 'string',
    ],
];

app/Http/SomeFormRequest.php

<?php

namespace App\Http;

class SomeFormRequest
{
    public function rules(): array
    {
        return [
            ...config('validation.a'),
            // more rules …
        ];
    }
}

2. Inherit from a base request
   app/Http/BaseFromRequest.php

<?php

namespace App\Http;

class BaseFormRequest
{
    public function rules(): array
    {
        return [
            'id' => 'uuid',
            'slug' => 'string',
        ];
    }
}

app/Http/SomeFormRequest.php

<?php

namespace App\Http;

class SomeFormRequest extends BaseFormRequest
{
    public function rules(): array
    {
        return [
            ...parent::rules(),
            // more rules …
        ];
    }
}