php 45 lines · 6 steps

How a Laravel FormRequest validates invoices

A FormRequest bundles authorization, validation rules, and localized error messaging into one reusable class.

Explained by highlit
Laravel Intermediate validation authorization form-request localization nested-arrays
1<?php
2 
3namespace App\Http\Requests;
4 
5use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
6 
7class StoreInvoiceRequest extends FormRequest
8{
9 public function authorize(): bool
10 {
11 return $this->user()->can('create', Invoice::class);
12 }
13 
14 public function rules(): array
15 {
16 return [
17 'customer_email' => ['required', 'email', 'max:255'],
18 'issued_at' => ['required', 'date', 'before_or_equal:today'],
19 'due_at' => ['required', 'date', 'after:issued_at'],
20 'line_items' => ['required', 'array', 'min:1'],
21 'line_items.*.description' => ['required', 'string', 'max:500'],
22 'line_items.*.amount' => ['required', 'numeric', 'min:0.01'],
23 ];
24 }
25 
26 public function messages(): array
27 {
28 return [
29 'due_at.after' => __('validation.custom.invoice.due_after_issue'),
30 'line_items.min' => __('validation.custom.invoice.line_items_required'),
31 'line_items.*.amount.min' => __('validation.custom.invoice.positive_amount'),
32 ];
33 }
34 
35 public function attributes(): array
36 {
37 return [
38 'customer_email' => __('validation.attributes.customer_email'),
39 'issued_at' => __('validation.attributes.issued_at'),
40 'due_at' => __('validation.attributes.due_at'),
41 'line_items.*.description' => __('validation.attributes.line_item_description'),
42 'line_items.*.amount' => __('validation.attributes.line_item_amount'),
43 ];
44 }
45}
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STEP 01

Walkthrough

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Three takeaways
  1. 1FormRequest classes keep authorization and validation out of controllers so actions stay lean.
  2. 2Dot and star notation let you validate every element of a nested array with a single rule key.
  3. 3Overriding messages() and attributes() turns raw field names into human-friendly, translatable error text.

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