使用L4验证器的嵌套输入

Question

Does anyone know how to validate nested input sets using the Laravel 4 validator?

I have a table with a set of line items, and each quantity field has the unique package id in square brackets in the name:

<input type="text" name="quantity[package_one]" />
<input type="text" name="quantity[package_two]" />

This results in a nested input array:

<?php

array(
  'quantity' => array(
    'package_one' => 3,
    'package_two' => 12
  )
);

Which is exactly what i want, but i'm unsure how to specify rules for these items using the validator class:

// Does not work :-(
Validator::make(Input::all(), array(
    'quantity[package_one]' => 'numeric|required|min:1',
    'quantity[package_two]' => 'numeric|required|min:1'
));

This does not seem to work, neither does nesting the rules under quantity. Obviously there are workarounds to this like building a custom array of input yourself before passing it to the validator etc, but what i'd like to know is:

is there a native, "Laravel" way of handling nested input like this?

Thanks in advance, Dan.

Answer 1

The dirty way....

Controller

$input = Input::all();
$input = array_merge($input, $input['quantity']);
Validator::make(Input::all(), array(
'package_one' => 'numeric|required|min:1',
'package_two' => 'numeric|required|min:1'
 ));

Validator does not look into nested arrays. just bring that array to the outer one and you are done. (you can unset $input['quntity'] if you want after that)

loophole here is, it assumes that $input['quantity'] is present in the array. You need to validate this before putting into validation.

Works but not efficient.