theriddleofenigma/laravel-model-validation

Effortless, self-contained validation for your Eloquent models.

v2.0.0 2026-07-24 07:18 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.2
• illuminate/contracts: ^12.0|^13.0
• illuminate/database: ^12.0|^13.0
• illuminate/support: ^12.0|^13.0
• illuminate/validation: ^12.0|^13.0

Requires (Dev)

• laravel/pint: ^1.29
• orchestra/testbench: ^10.0|^11.0
• phpunit/phpunit: ^11.5|^12.0

MIT

• Kumaravel

• validator
• validation
• model
• laravel
• eloquent

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-07-24 08:30 UTC

README

Effortless, self-contained validation for your Eloquent models.

Keep your validation rules where the data lives. Declare the rules on the model, opt in to the model event you care about, and every save is validated automatically — no form requests, no repeated calls to the validator.

Requirements

Package	Version
PHP	8.2, 8.3, 8.4
Laravel	12.x, 13.x

Laravel 13 requires PHP 8.3 or newer. Older Laravel releases that have reached end-of-life are not supported.

Installation

composer require theriddleofenigma/laravel-model-validation

Quick start

Add the Enigma\ValidatorTrait to a model, declare its rules, and register the event you want to validate on:

use Enigma\ValidatorTrait;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class User extends Model
{
    use ValidatorTrait;

    public array $validationRules = [
        'name' => 'required|max:10',
        'email' => 'required|email',
    ];

    protected static function boot(): void
    {
        parent::boot();

        // Validate the model automatically whenever it is saved.
        static::validateOnSaving();
    }
}

Now any attempt to save an invalid model throws an Illuminate\Validation\ValidationException, exactly like Laravel's own validation — so in an HTTP context the errors are flashed and redirected for you automatically.

User::create(['name' => 'Kumar', 'email' => 'not-an-email']); // throws ValidationException

Registering validation

Three helpers register the matching Eloquent event listener for you:

static::validateOnSaving();   // fires on create and update
static::validateOnCreating(); // fires on create only
static::validateOnUpdating(); // fires on update only

Prefer to validate on a different event, or on demand? Call validate() yourself. It returns the validated data and throws on failure:

$validated = $user->validate();

Customising the configuration

Rules, messages and attribute names can each be declared either as a property or as a method of the same name. A method always takes precedence, so you can compute the configuration dynamically when you need to.

class User extends Model
{
    use ValidatorTrait;

    public array $validationMessages = [
        'name.required' => 'Name field is required.',
        'email.email' => 'The given email is in an invalid format.',
    ];

    public array $validationAttributes = [
        'name' => 'User Name',
    ];

    public function validationRules(): array
    {
        return [
            'name' => 'required|max:10',
            'email' => ['required', 'email', 'unique:users,email,' . $this->id],
        ];
    }
}

Controlling the data that gets validated

By default the model's raw attributes are validated. Declare a validationData() method to reshape that data first — the returned value is used only for validation and never changes what is persisted.

/**
 * @param  array<string, mixed>  $data  The value of $this->getAttributes().
 * @return array<string, mixed>
 */
public function validationData(array $data): array
{
    $data['name'] = strtolower($data['name']);

    return $data;
}

Skipping validation

Sometimes you need to persist a model without validating it — a seeder, a data import, or an admin override. There are three ways to do it.

Skip it on a single instance and save:

$user = new User(['name' => 'Kumar']);

$user->skipValidation()->save();
// or, for a one-off save that leaves the instance's state untouched:
$user->saveWithoutValidation();

Toggle the flag back on when you need to:

$user->skipValidation();       // subsequent saves are not validated
$user->skipValidation(false);  // validation is back on

Disable validation for a whole block — the cleanest way to skip it when creating through the query builder:

User::withoutValidation(function () {
    User::create(['name' => 'Kumar']); // not validated
});

// the return value of the callback is passed through
$user = User::withoutValidation(fn () => User::create(['name' => 'Kumar']));

Validation is automatically re-enabled once the callback finishes, even if it throws.

Before & after hooks

Implement beforeValidation() and/or afterValidation() to run logic around each validation pass:

public function beforeValidation(): void
{
    // Normalise attributes, set defaults, etc.
}

public function afterValidation(): void
{
    // Anything that should run once validation succeeds.
}

Testing

composer install
composer test

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! Please read the contributing guide first, make sure the test suite passes, and add coverage for any behaviour you change. Notable changes are tracked in the changelog.

Security

If you discover a security vulnerability, please follow the process in SECURITY.md rather than opening a public issue.

Code of Conduct

This project follows a Code of Conduct. By participating, you are expected to uphold it.

License

Laravel Model Validation is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.