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Hi, I'm Valerio Barbera, software engineer, founder and CTO at Inspector.

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Data validation is one of the fundamental features in any application and it is something developers manipulate almost every day. 

\
## ***The value a software provides to users is often a function of the quality of data it is able to manage.*** 

\
Laravel ships with a lot of [predefined validation rules](https://laravel.com/docs/master/validation#available-validation-rules) you can immediately use in your controllers.

\
Working on the Inspector backend we have identified some aspects of validating incoming data, which have an impact on the security and reliability of the application.

\
Furthermore, thanks to custom rules you can easily extend the validation layer of your app with functionalities provided by external services.

\
Let me start with a bit of context to clarify the role the validation layer plays in a backend service, then I’ll show you our implementations.

## **Laravel Validation layer**

Data integrity and validation are important aspects of web development because they define the state of the app. If data are wrong, the application behaves wrong.

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It's always important to validate data not only before storing it in the database but before doing anything with the data.

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In the Laravel request lifecycle, an HTTP request sent by a client-first goes through middleware. Middleware deals with a mix of things between authentication and security.

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**Now, before the request enters the application, the data it carries must be validated.**

 ![Image description](https://cdn.hackernoon.com//images/pDUI21JXq3hUt99Uzg6NBXjyGOB2-2022-03-26T05:20:04.849Z-cl17elek1001m0as6go09859t)

There are two ways to accomplish data validation in Laravel: Inside the controllers, or using Form requests.

## **Validation in Controller**

The easiest way of validation is performing it directly in the controller. At the start of each controller method you can first validate data:

\
```php
<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;
 
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
 
class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        $request->validate([
            'name' => 'required|string|min:3',
            'email' => 'required|email|min:6',
        ]);
 
        // here we know data are valid so we can pass them to database or other services
    }
}
```

\
Laravel will take care to return a 422 response code to the client if the data are not valid.

## **Use Form requests**

If your validation rules are too complex you may want to encapsulate them in reusable classes avoiding messing up the controller.

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Laravel provides the ability to wrap validation in a dedicated component called [FormRequest](https://laravel.com/docs/master/validation#form-request-validation).

First, create a form request class:

\
```
php artisan make:request StoreUserRequest
```

\
Then move your validation logic inside the rules method of the request class:

\
```php
<?php
 
namespace App\Http\Requests;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
 
class StoreUserRequest extends FormRequest
{
    /**
     * Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function authorize()
    {
        return true;
    }
 
    /**
     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function rules()
    {
        return [
            'name' => 'required|string|min:3',
            'email' => 'required|email|min:6',
        ];
    }
}
```

\
You can type-hint this new request class in the controller method instead of the original request class so Laravel will apply the validation rules automatically, and remove the validation statement:

\
```php
<?php
 
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
 
use App\Http\Requests\StoreUserRequest;
 
class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function store(StoreUserRequest $request)
    {
        // here we know data are valid so we can pass them to database or other services
    }
}
```

## **Custom Validation Rules**

Laravel provided a really well-developed validation layer. It can be easily extended by implementing custom rules to be reused in your code, or to extend the capability of your validation using external services.

\
Allow me to show you a real example of one of the custom rules we implemented in Inspector.

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First, create the class that represents a validation rule in Laravel:

\
```
php artisan make:rule SecurePassword
```

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The idea is to verify if the password is in the list of well-known insecure passwords. If it is, it will not pass the validation, forcing the user to use a less common string.

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```php
<?php

namespace App\Rules;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Validation\Rule;

class SecurePassword implements Rule
{
    /**
     * Determine if the validation rule passes.
     *
     * @param  string  $attribute
     * @param  mixed  $value
     * @return bool
     */
    public function passes($attribute, $value)
    {
        return !in_array($value, [
            'picture1',
            'password',
            'password1',
            '12345678',
            '111111',
			
			...
        ]);
    }

    /**
     * Get the validation error message.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function message()
    {
        return 'The chosen password is unsecure. Try again with a less common string.';
    }
}
```

## **Integrate With External Services**

Talking about data validation there are a lot of SaaS services that can bring new capabilities in your validation layer in terms of security and reliability of the data collected.

\
I recommend you take a look at [apilayer.com](https://apilayer.com/) which provides a great set of REST services to deal with data.

\
In Inspector we use the [mailboxlayer.com](https://mailboxlayer.com/) API to validate emails. The service is also able to detect fake email addresses, temporary addresses, and the actual existence of an email address using MX-Records and SMTP.

\
Add two configuration property to store the api keys of the new services in the `config/service.php` file:

\
```php
return [

    ...,
	
    'mailboxlayer' => [
        'key' => env('MAILBOXLAYER_KEY'),
    ],

    'vatlayer' => [
        'key' => env('VATLAYER_KEY'),
    ],
	
];
```

\
Create the custom rule:

\
```
php artisan make:rule EmailSpam
```

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Here is the complete code of the rule:

\
```php
<?php

namespace App\Rules;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Validation\Rule;

class EmailSpam implements Rule
{
    /**
     * Determine if the validation rule passes.
     *
     * @param string $attribute
     * @param mixed $value
     * @return bool
     */
    public function passes($attribute, $value)
    {
        if (app()->environment('local')) {
            return true;
        }

        return !config('services.mailboxlayer.key') || $this->check($value);
    }

    /**
     * Perform email check.
     *
     * @param string $email
     * @return bool
     */
    protected function check(string $email): bool
    {
        try{
            $response = file_get_contents('https://apilayer.net/api/check?'.http_build_query([
                'access_key' => config('services.mailboxlayer.key'),
                'email' => '[mailbox-layer-account-email]',
                'smtp' => 1,
            ]));

            $response = json_decode($response, true);

            return $response['format_valid'] && !$response['disposable'];

        } catch (\Exception $exception) {
            report($exception);

            if (app()->environment('local')) {
                return false;
            }

            // Don't block production environment in case of apilayer error
            return true;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Get the validation error message.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function message()
    {
        return 'Invalid email address.';
    }
}
```

\
## Tips & Tricks

### **Validate Borders**

Based on my experience I can suggest you to always validate not only the minimum size of the incoming fields but also the maximum size.

\
Don't wait for database errors that truncate too long strings and help your users to understand the limits of each field by the error messages returned during validation.

\
### **Ask for the Current Password**

Every critical action should require a password confirmation.

\
You should always prompt the user to type the current password to authorize actions that can compromise the account accessibility, like change email, and change password.

\
This feature will improve security because also having physical access to the computer with the Inspector dashboard opened on the screen, a malicious user can’t change access credentials without knowing the current password. He can’t shut you out.

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Here is our implementation of the current password verification:

\
```php
<?php

namespace App\Rules;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Validation\Rule;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Hash;

class CurrentPassword implements Rule
{
    /**
     * Determine if the validation rule passes.
     *
     * @param  string  $attribute
     * @param  mixed  $value
     * @return bool
     */
    public function passes($attribute, $value)
    {
        return Hash::check($value, Auth::user()->password);
    }

    /**
     * Get the validation error message.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function message()
    {
        return 'Your current password is incorrect.';
    }
}
```

## New to Inspector?

Are you looking for a "code-driven" monitoring tool to identify technical problems in your applications automatically?

\
Get a monitoring environment specifically designed for software developers avoiding any server or infrastructure configuration.

\
Thanks to Inspector, you will never have the need to install things at the server level or make complex configuration in your cloud infrastructure to monitor your application in real-time.

\
 ![Inspector Process Timeline](https://cdn.hackernoon.com//images/pDUI21JXq3hUt99Uzg6NBXjyGOB2-2022-03-26T05:20:04.849Z-cl17elek2001n0as64tjcbnmc)

\
Inspector works with a lightweight software library that you can install in your application like any other dependencies based on the technology you are using to develop your backend. 

\
Check out the supported technology on our GitHub (<https://github.com/inspector-apm>).

\
Visit our website for more details: <https://inspector.dev/laravel/>

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