php 42 lines · 6 steps

Normalizing input in a Laravel FormRequest

A FormRequest that authorizes, cleans, and validates article input before it reaches the controller.

Explained by highlit

Laravel Intermediate validation authorization input-normalization collections

1<?php
2 
3namespace App\Http\Requests;
4 
5use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
6use Illuminate\Support\Str;
7use Illuminate\Validation\Rule;
8 
9class StoreArticleRequest extends FormRequest
10{
11    public function authorize(): bool
12    {
13        return $this->user()->can('create', Article::class);
14    }
15 
16    protected function prepareForValidation(): void
17    {
18        $this->merge([
19            'slug' => Str::slug($this->input('slug') ?: $this->input('title', '')),
20            'title' => trim($this->input('title', '')),
21            'tags' => collect(explode(',', (string) $this->input('tags')))
22                ->map(fn (string $tag) => Str::lower(trim($tag)))
23                ->filter()
24                ->unique()
25                ->values()
26                ->all(),
27            'published' => $this->boolean('published'),
28        ]);
29    }
30 
31    public function rules(): array
32    {
33        return [
34            'title' => ['required', 'string', 'max:150'],
35            'slug' => ['required', 'string', 'max:170', Rule::unique('articles', 'slug')],
36            'body' => ['required', 'string', 'min:50'],
37            'tags' => ['array', 'max:8'],
38            'tags.*' => ['string', 'max:30'],
39            'published' => ['boolean'],
40        ];
41    }
42}

01 / 01

STEP 01

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Three takeaways

1prepareForValidation lets you sanitize and reshape input before rules run, keeping controllers clean.
2Chaining collection methods turns messy comma-separated input into a deduplicated, trimmed array in one expression.
3Centralizing auth, normalization, and rules in one FormRequest keeps request concerns out of the controller.

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