How to Generate Validation Rules from a Database Schema in Laravel

The Laravel Schema Rules package automates the generation of fundamental validation rules in Laravel, drawing from your database table schema. It serves as a handy tool for kickstarting your validation process, providing initial rules that you can refine and optimize to suit your specific requirements.

Given the following schema for your table:

Schema::create('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->id();
    $table->string('first_name', 100);
    $table->string('last_name', 100);
    $table->string('email');
    $table->foreignId('address_id')->constrained();
    $table->text('bio')->nullable();
    $table->enum('gender', ['m', 'f', 'd']);
    $table->date('birth');
    $table->year('graduated');
    $table->float('body_size');
    $table->unsignedTinyInteger('children_count')->nullable();
    $table->integer('account_balance');
    $table->unsignedInteger('net_income');
    $table->boolean('send_newsletter')->nullable();
});

You can run the schema:generate-rules artisan command to generate validation rules:

$ php artisan schema:generate-rules users

[
    'first_name' => ['required', 'string', 'min:1', 'max:100'],
    'last_name' => ['required', 'string', 'min:1', 'max:100'],
    'email' => ['required', 'string', 'min:1', 'max:255'],
    'address_id' => ['required', 'exists:addresses,id'],
    'bio' => ['nullable', 'string', 'min:1'],
    'gender' => ['required', 'string', 'in:m,f,d'],
    'birth' => ['required', 'date'],
    'graduated' => ['required', 'integer', 'min:1901', 'max:2155'],
    'body_size' => ['required', 'numeric'],
    'children_count' => ['nullable', 'integer', 'min:0', 'max:255'],
    'account_balance' => ['required', 'integer', 'min:-2147483648', 'max:2147483647'],
    'net_income' => ['required', 'integer', 'min:0', 'max:4294967295'],
    'send_newsletter' => ['nullable', 'boolean']
]

ou can also target specific columns, skip columns, and even generate a form request class.

php artisan schema:generate-rules users --columns first_name,last_name,email

Which gives you:

Schema-based validation rules for table "users" have been generated!
Copy & paste these to your controller validation or form request or where ever your validation takes place:
[
    'first_name' => ['required', 'string', 'min:1', 'max:100'],
    'last_name' => ['required', 'string', 'min:1', 'max:100'],
    'email' => ['required', 'string', 'min:1', 'max:255']
]

Generate Form Request Class

Optionally, you can add a --create-request or -c flag, which will create a form request class with the generated rules for you!

# creates app/Http/Requests/StoreUserRequest.php (store request is the default)
php artisan schema:generate-rules users --create-request 

# creates/overwrites app/Http/Requests/StoreUserRequest.php
php artisan schema:generate-rules users --create-request --force

# creates app/Http/Requests/UpdateUserRequest.php
php artisan schema:generate-rules users --create-request --file UpdateUserRequest

# creates app/Http/Requests/Api/V1/StoreUserRequest.php
php artisan schema:generate-rules users--create-request --file Api\\V1\\StoreUserRequest

# creates/overwrites app/Http/Requests/Api/V1/StoreUserRequest.php (using shortcuts)
php artisan schema:generate-rules users -cf --file Api\\V1\\StoreUserRequest

Always skip columns

To always skip columns add it in the config file, under skip_columns parameter.

'skip_columns' => ['whatever', 'some_other_column'],

You can learn more about this package, get full installation instructions, and view the source code on GitHub.

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