Creating a Validator class
Before creating any validators, you will need to add a reference to
FluentValidation.dllTo define a set of validation rules for a particular object, you will need to create a class that inherits from
AbstractValidator<T>, where T is the type of class that you wish to validate.
For example, imagine that you have a
Customer class:
public class Customer {
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Surname { get; set; }
public string Forename { get; set; }
public decimal Discount { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
}
You would define a set of validation rules for this class by inheriting from
AbstractValidator<Customer>:
using FluentValidation;
public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> {
}
The validation rules themselves should be defined in the validator class's constructor. To specify a validation rule for a particular property, call the
RuleFor method, passing a lambda expression for the property that you wish to validate. For example, to ensure that the
Surname property is not null, the validator class would look like this:
using FluentValidation;
public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> {
public CustomerValidator {
RuleFor(customer => customer.Surname).NotNull();
}
}
Chaining Validators for the Same Property
You can chain multiple validators together for the same property:
using FluentValidation;
public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> {
public CustomerValidator {
RuleFor(customer => customer.Surname).NotNull().NotEqual("foo");
}
}
This would ensure that the surname is not null and is not equal to the string 'foo'.
To execute the validator, create an instance of the validator class and pass the object that you wish to validate to the
Validate method.
Customer customer = new Customer();
CustomerValidator validator = new CustomerValidator();
ValidationResult results = validator.Validate(customer);
ValidationResult
The Validate method returns a ValidationResult object. This contains two properties:
- IsValid - a boolean that says whether the validation suceeded.
- Errors - a collection of ValidationFailure objects containing details about any validation failures.
The following code would write any validation failures to the console:
Customer customer = new Customer();
CustomerValidator validator = new CustomerValidator();
ValidationResult results = validator.Validate(customer);
if(! results.IsValid) {
foreach(var failure in results.Errors) {
Console.WriteLine("Property " + failure.PropertyName + " failed validation. Error was: " + failure.ErrorMessage);
}
}
Throwing Exceptions
Instead of returning a ValidationResult, you can alternatively tell FluentValidation to throw an exception if validation fails by using the ValidateAndthrow method:
Customer customer = new Customer();
CustomerValidator validator = new CustomerValidator();
validator.ValidateAndThrow(customer);
This throws a ValidationException which contains the error messages in the Errors property.
Note ValidateAndThrow is an extension method, so you must have the
FluentValidation namespace imported for this method to be available.
Re-using Validators for Complex Properties
Validators can be re-used for complex properties. For example, imagine you have two classes,
Customer and
Address:
public class Customer {
public string Name { get; set; }
public Address Address { get; set; }
}
public class Address {
public string Line1 { get; set; }
public string Line2 { get; set; }
public string Town { get; set; }
public string County { get; set; }
public string Postcode { get; set; }
}
... and you define an AddressValidator:
public class AddressValidator : AbstractValidator<Address> {
public AddressValidator() {
RuleFor(address => address.Postcode).NotNull();
//etc
}
}
... you can then re-use the AddressValidator in the CustomerValidator definition:
public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> {
public CustomerValidator() {
RuleFor(customer => customer.Name).NotNull();
RuleFor(customer => customer.Address).SetValidator(new AddressValidator())
}
}
... so when you call
Validate on the CustomerValidator it will run through the validators defined in both the CustomerValidator and the AddressValidator and combine the results into a single ValidationResult.
Re-using Validators for Collections
Validators can also be re-used on properties that contain collections of other objects. For example, imagine a Customer object that has a collection of Orders:
public class Customer {
public IList<Order> Orders { get; set; }
}
public class Order {
public string ProductName { get; set; }
public decimal? Cost { get; set; }
}
var customer = new Customer();
customer.Orders = new List<Order> {
new Order { ProductName = "Foo" },
new Order { Cost = 5 }
};
... and you've already defined an OrderValidator:
public class OrderValidator : AbstractValidator<Order> {
public OrderValidator() {
RuleFor(x => x.ProductName).NotNull();
RuleFor(x => x.Cost).GreaterThan(0);
}
}
....this validator can be used within the CustomerValidator definition:
public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> {
public CustomerValidator() {
RuleFor(x => x.Orders).SetCollectionValidator(new OrderValidator());
}
}
var validator = new CustomerValidator();
var results = validator.Validate(customer);
When the validator is executed, the error messages will reflect the placement of the order object within the collection:
foreach(var result in results.Errors) {
Console.WriteLine("Property name: " + result.PropertyName);
Console.WriteLine("Error: " + result.ErrorMessage);
Console.WriteLine("");
}
Property name: Orders[0].Cost
Error: 'Cost' must be greater than '0'.
Property name: Orders[1].ProductName
Error: 'Product Name' must not be empty.
You can optionally include or exclude certain items in the collection from being validated by using the
Where method:
RuleFor(x => x.Orders).SetCollectionValidator(new OrderValidator())
.Where(x => x.Cost != null);
Rule Sets
RuleSets allow you to group validation rules together which can be executed together as a group whilst ignoring other rules:
For example, let’s imagine we have 3 properties on a Person object (Id, Surname and Forename) and have a validation rule for each. We could group the Surname and Forename rules together in a “Names” RuleSet:
public class PersonValidator : AbstractValidator<Person> {
public PersonValidator() {
RuleSet("Names", () => {
RuleFor(x => x.Surname).NotNull();
RuleFor(x => x.Forename).NotNull();
});
RuleFor(x => x.Id).NotEqual(0);
}
}
Here the two rules on Surname and Forename are grouped together in a “Names” RuleSet. We can invoke only these rules by passing a ruleSet parameter to the Validate extension method (note that this must be a named parameter as this overload has several options available).
var validator = new PersonValidator();
var person = new Person();
var result = validator.Validate(person, ruleSet: "Names");
This allows you to break down a complex validator definition into smaller segments that can be executed in isolation.