NAME

Workflow::Validator - Ensure data are valid

VERSION

This documentation describes version 1.05 of this package

SYNOPSIS

 # First declare the validator...
 <validator name="DateValidator"
            class="MyApp::Validator::Date">
   <param name="date_format" value="%Y-%m-%d %h:%m"/>
 </validator>

 # Then associate the validator with runtime data from the context...
 <action name="MyAction">
    <validator name="DateValidator">
       <arg>$due_date</arg>
    </validator>
 </action>

 # TODO: You can also inintialize and instantiate in one step if you
 # don't need to centralize or reuse (does this work?)

 <action name="MyAction">
    <validator class="MyApp::Validator::Date">
       <param name="date_format" value="%Y-%m-%d %h:%m"/>
       <arg>$due_date</arg>
    </validator>
 </action>

 # Then implement the logic

 package MyApp::Validator::Date;

 use strict;
 use base qw( Workflow::Validator );
 use DateTime::Format::Strptime;
 use Workflow::Exception qw( configuration_error );

 __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors( 'formatter' );

 sub _init {
     my ( $self, $params ) = @_;
     unless ( $params->{date_format} ) {
         configuration_error
             "You must define a value for 'date_format' in ",
             "declaration of validator ", $self->name;
     }
     if ( ref $params->{date_format} ) {
         configuration_error
             "The value for 'date_format' must be a simple scalar in ",
             "declaration of validator ", $self->name;
     }
     my $formatter = DateTime::Format::Strptime->new(
                              pattern => $params->{date_format},
                              on_error => 'undef' );
     $self->formatter( $formatter );
 }

 sub validate {
     my ( $self, $wf, $date_string ) = @_;
     my $fmt = $self->formatter;
     my $date_object = $fmt->parse_datetime( $date_string );
     unless ( $date_object ) {
         validation_error
             "Date '$date_string' does not match pattern '", $fmt->pattern, "' ",
             "due to error '", $fmt->errstr, "'";
     }
 }

DESCRIPTION

Validators specified by 'validator_name' are looked up in the Workflow::Factory which reads a separate configuration and generates validators. (Generally all validators should be declared, but it is not required.)

Validators are objects with a single public method, 'validate()' that take as arguments a workflow object and a list of parameters. The parameters are filled in by the workflow engine according to the instantiation declaration in the Action.

The idea behind a validator is that it validates data but does not care where it comes from.

SUBCLASSING

Strategy

Methods

init( \%params )

Called when the validator is first initialized. If you do not have sufficient information in \%params you should throw an exception.

_init

This is a dummy method, please see "init".

validate( $workflow, $data )

Determine whether your $data is true or false. If necessary you can get the application context information from the $workflow object.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2003-2004 Chris Winters. All rights reserved.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHORS

Chris Winters <chris@cwinters.com>