Enhanced FormValidator with Custom Messages and Combine Functionality

[ElAdrixHD]

Hey! I've been using Nylo's form validation and love it, but I've run into a couple of limitations that would be awesome to improve.

Current Problem

Right now when you chain validations, they all share the same message:

Field.password("Password",
  validate: FormValidator(message: "custom message")
    .notEmpty()  // ← Can't set custom message here
    .minLength(8)  // ← Or here
    .password(strength: 2)  // ← Or here
)

So if any validation fails, the user just sees "custom message" instead of knowing exactly what went wrong.

What I'd Love to See

1. Custom messages for each validation method

Field.password("Password",
  validate: FormValidator()
    .notEmpty(message: "Password is required")
    .minLength(8, message: "Password must be at least 8 characters")
    .password(strength: 2, message: "Password is too weak")
)

This way users get specific feedback about what's actually wrong.

2. FormValidator.combine() method

Sometimes you want to reuse validation logic or combine multiple validators:

FormValidator basicPassword = FormValidator()
    .notEmpty(message: "Password is required")
    .minLength(8, message: "Too short");

FormValidator strongPassword = FormValidator()
    .password(strength: 2, message: "Not strong enough");

Field.password("Password", 
  validate: FormValidator.combine([basicPassword, strongPassword])
)

Real Example

Instead of this confusing experience:

User types "123" → Shows "Invalid input"  // What's wrong exactly?

You'd get this clear feedback:

User types "123" → Shows "Password must be at least 8 characters"

Implementation Ideas

The current API could stay exactly the same for backward compatibility, just add optional message parameters:

// Old way still works
FormValidator("general message").notEmpty().email()

// New way with specific messages
FormValidator().notEmpty(message: "Required").email(message: "Invalid email")

For combine(), it could be a static method that takes a list of validators and runs them in sequence.

Implementation

If this seems like a good fit for Nylo, I could work on implementing it when I have some free time available. Happy to create a pull request if there's interest from the maintainers.

Let me know your thoughts on this.

[agordn52]

Hi @ElAdrixHD,

Yeah makes sense. I really like the new syntax too! It would definitely make validation more flexible and customizable for everyone.

I'll spend some time this week on the solution and message back here when it's ready.

It'll most likely be in 6.8.11.

If you have any more ideas feel free to drop them here, thanks.

[ElAdrixHD]

Hi @agordn52 ,

Awesome! Thanks for considering this.

One additional thought - I noticed there are currently two validation systems in Nylo:

1. validate() helper that uses string-based rules like "email|max:10|lowercase"
2. FormValidator class with method chaining

I find the FormValidator approach much more intuitive and developer-friendly:

Validate approach:

validate(rules: {
  "email": ["[email protected]", "email|not_empty|max:50"]
});

FormValidator approach:

FormValidator()
  .notEmpty()
  .email()
  .maxLength(50)

Would it make sense to eventually deprecate the string-based validation system in favor of focusing entirely on FormValidator? This would simplify the framework and provide a single, consistent way to handle validation.

Just a thought - the FormValidator approach feels much cleaner to work with!