How to organize parsing and validation of REST API parameters?

Question

I have a rest api that has many parameters via the query string. I am wondering if someone knows of a design pattern or has a nice way of organizing all the parameters (Objects, functions, array, json). Right now I am parsing and validating all my parameters in the same function, very ugly code.

Ideally I would like some way to handle the parameters similar to a database ORM or even a config file/array/json. However, I have tried to come up with a solution to this without any luck.

Any insight would be appreciated!

Example of my thoughts:

<?php ... $parameters = [ // ?fields=id,name 'fields' => [ 'default' => ['id', 'name'], 'valid' => ['id', 'name', 'date], 'type' => 'csv', // list of values (id & name) 'required' => ['id'], 'replace' => ['title' => 'name'], // if the database & api names don't match 'relation' => null, // related database table ], // ?list=true 'list' => [ 'default' => ['false'], 'valid' => ['true', 'false'], 'type' => 'boolean' // single value (true or false) 'required' => [], 'replace' => [], // if the database & api names don't match 'relation' => 'category', // related database table ], .... ];

Peter · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-13 16:08:54Z

Seems to me like you are looking for a validation library. My favorite is Symfony's: https://github.com/symfony/validator. I know Zend Framework 2 also has a validation component. I haven't used it personally, but I expect that to be very good too.

Example from the symfony/validator readme:

<?php use Symfony\Component\Validator\Validation; use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert; $validator = Validation::createValidator(); $constraint = new Assert\Collection(array( 'name' => new Assert\Collection(array( 'first_name' => new Assert\Length(array('min' => 101)), 'last_name' => new Assert\Length(array('min' => 1)), )), 'email' => new Assert\Email(), 'simple' => new Assert\Length(array('min' => 102)), 'gender' => new Assert\Choice(array(3, 4)), 'file' => new Assert\File(), 'password' => new Assert\Length(array('min' => 60)), ));

$input would be $_GET or something obtained with parse_str etc. It is also possible to define the validation rules in some other format, such as YAML.

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