Finishing Validator Docs

components/validator.rst

@@ -5,27 +5,72 @@
 The Validator Component
 =======================
 
-    The Validator component provides tools to validate values.
+    The Validator component provides tools to validate values following the
+    `JSR-303 Bean Validation specification`_.
 
 Installation
 ------------
 
-You can install the component in 2 different ways:
+You can install the component in two different ways:
 
 * :doc:`Install it via Composer </components/using_components>` (``symfony/validator`` on `Packagist`_);
-* Use the official Git repository (https://github.com/symfony/validator).
+* Use the official Git repository (https://github.com/symfony/Validator).
 
-For more information, see the code in the Git Repository.
+.. include:: /components/require_autoload.rst.inc
 
-Learn more
+Usage
+-----
+
+The Validator component behavior is based on two concepts:
+
+* Contraints, which define the rules to be validated;
+* Validators, which are the classes that contain the actual validation logic.
+
+The following example shows how to validate that a string is at least 10
+characters long::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Validation;
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints\Length;
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints\NotBlank;
+
+    $validator = Validation::createValidator();
+    $violations = $validator->validate('Bernhard', array(
+        new Length(array('min' => 10)),
+        new NotBlank(),
+    ));
+
+    if (0 !== count($violations)) {
+        // there are errors, now you can show them
+        foreach ($violations as $violation) {
+            echo $violation->getMessage().'<br>';
+        }
+    }
+
+Retrieving a Validator Instance
+-------------------------------
+
+The :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\Validator` class is the main access
+point of the Validator component. To create a new instance of this class, it's
+recommended to use the :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\Validation` class::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Validation;
+
+    $validator = Validation::createValidator();
+
+This ``$validator`` object can validate simple variables such as strings, numbers
+and arrays, but it can't validate objects. To do so, configure the
+``Validator`` class as explained in the next sections.
+
+Learn More
 ----------
 
 .. toctree::
-   :maxdepth: 1
-   :glob:
+    :maxdepth: 1
+    :glob:
 
-   /validation
-   /validation/*
-   /reference/constraints/*
+    /components/validator/*
+    /validation
+    /validation/*
 
+.. _`JSR-303 Bean Validation specification`: http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=303
 .. _Packagist: https://packagist.org/packages/symfony/validator

components/validator/metadata.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+.. index::
+    single: Validator; Metadata
+
+Metadata
+========
+
+The :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\Mapping\\ClassMetadata` class
+represents and manages all the configured constraints on a given class.
+
+Properties
+----------
+
+The Validator component can validate public, protected or private properties.
+The following example shows how to validate that the ``$firstName`` property of
+the ``Author`` class has at least 3 characters::
+
+    // ...
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Mapping\ClassMetadata;
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
+
+    class Author
+    {
+        private $firstName;
+
+        public static function loadValidatorMetadata(ClassMetadata $metadata)
+        {
+            $metadata->addPropertyConstraint('firstName', new Assert\NotBlank());
+            $metadata->addPropertyConstraint(
+                'firstName',
+                new Assert\Length(array("min" => 3))
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+Getters
+-------
+
+Constraints can also be applied to the value returned by any public *getter*
+method, which are the methods whose names start with ``get`` or ``is``. This
+feature allows to validate your objects dynamically.
+
+Suppose that, for security reasons, you want to validate that a password field
+doesn't match the first name of the user. First, create a public method called
+``isPasswordSafe`` to define this custom validation logic::
+
+    public function isPasswordSafe()
+    {
+        return $this->firstName !== $this->password;
+    }
+
+Then, add the Validator component configuration to the class::
+
+    // ...
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Mapping\ClassMetadata;
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
+
+    class Author
+    {
+        public static function loadValidatorMetadata(ClassMetadata $metadata)
+        {
+            $metadata->addGetterConstraint('passwordSafe', new Assert\True(array(
+                'message' => 'The password cannot match your first name',
+            )));
+        }
+    }
+
+Classes
+-------
+
+Some constraints allow to validate the entire object. For example, the
+:doc:`Callback </reference/constraints/Callback>` constraint is a generic
+constraint that's applied to the class itself.

components/validator/resources.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,205 @@
+.. index::
+    single: Validator; Loading Resources
+
+Loading Resources
+=================
+
+The Validator component uses metadata to validate a value. This metadata defines
+how a class, array or any other value should be validated. When validating a
+class, the metadata is defined by the class itself. When validating simple values,
+the metadata must be passed to the validation methods.
+
+Class metadata can be defined in a configuration file or in the class itself.
+The Validator component collects that metadata using a set of loaders.
+
+.. seealso::
+
+    You'll learn how to define the metadata in :doc:`metadata`.
+
+The StaticMethodLoader
+----------------------
+
+The most basic loader is the
+:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\Mapping\\Loader\\StaticMethodLoader`.
+This loader gets the metadata by calling a static method of the class. The name
+of the method is configured using the
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\ValidatorBuilder::addMethodMapping`
+method of the validator builder::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Validation;
+
+    $validator = Validation::createValidatorBuilder()
+        ->addMethodMapping('loadValidatorMetadata')
+        ->getValidator();
+
+In this example, the validation metadata is retrieved executing the
+``loadValidatorMetadata()`` method of the class::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Mapping\ClassMetadata;
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
+
+    class User
+    {
+        protected $name;
+
+        public static function loadValidatorMatadata(ClassMetadata $metadata)
+        {
+            $metadata->addPropertyConstraint('name', new Assert\NotBlank());
+            $metadata->addPropertyConstraint('name', new Asert\Length(array(
+                'min' => 5,
+                'max' => 20,
+            )));
+        }
+    }
+
+.. tip::
+
+    Instead of calling ``addMethodMapping()`` multiple times to add several
+    method names, you can also use
+    :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\ValidatorBuilder::addMethodMappings`
+    to set an array of supported method names.
+
+The File Loaders
+----------------
+
+The component also provides two file loaders, one to load YAML files and one to
+load XML files. Use
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\ValidatorBuilder::addYamlMapping` or
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\ValidatorBuilder::addXmlMapping` to
+configure the locations of these files::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Validation;
+
+    $validator = Validation::createValidatorBuilder()
+        ->addYamlMapping('config/validation.yml')
+        ->getValidator();
+
+.. note::
+
+    If you want to load YAML mapping files then you will also need to install
+    :doc:`the Yaml component </components/yaml>`.
+
+.. tip::
+
+    Just like with the method mappings, you can also use
+    :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\ValidatorBuilder::addYamlMappings` and
+    :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\ValidatorBuilder::addXmlMappings`
+    to configure an array of file paths.
+
+The AnnotationLoader
+--------------------
+
+At last, the component provides an
+:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\Mapping\\Loader\\AnnotationLoader` to get
+the metadata from the annotations of the class. Annotations are defined as ``@``
+prefixed classes included in doc block comments (``/** ... */``). For example::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
+    // ...
+
+    class User
+    {
+        /**
+        * @Assert\NotBlank()
+        */
+        protected $name;
+    }
+
+To enable the annotation loader, call the
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\ValidatorBuilder::enableAnnotationMapping`
+method. It takes an optional annotation reader instance, which defaults to
+``Doctrine\Common\Annotations\AnnotationReader``::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Validation;
+
+    $validator = Validation::createValidatorBuilder()
+        ->enableAnnotationMapping()
+        ->getValidator();
+
+To disable the annotation loader after it was enabled, call
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\ValidatorBuilder::disableAnnotationMapping`.
+
+.. note::
+
+    In order to use the annotation loader, you should have installed the
+    ``doctrine/annotations`` and ``doctrine/cache`` packages from `Packagist`_.
+
+Using Multiple Loaders
+----------------------
+
+The component provides a
+:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\Mapping\\Loader\\LoaderChain` class to
+execute several loaders sequentially in the same order they were defined:
+
+The ``ValidatorBuilder`` will already take care of this when you configure
+multiple mappings::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Validation;
+
+    $validator = Validation::createValidatorBuilder()
+        ->enableAnnotationMapping()
+        ->addMethodMapping('loadValidatorMetadata')
+        ->addXmlMapping('config/validation.xml')
+        ->getValidator();
+
+Caching
+-------
+
+Using many loaders to load metadata from different places is convenient, but it
+can slow down your application because each file needs to be parsed, validated
+and converted into a :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\Mapping\\ClassMetadata`
+instance. To solve this problem, you can cache the ``ClassMetadata`` information.
+
+The Validator component comes with an
+:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\Mapping\\Cache\\ApcCache`
+implementation. You can easily create other cachers by creating a class which
+implements :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\Mapping\\Cache\\CacheInterface`.
+
+.. note::
+
+    The loaders already use a singleton load mechanism. That means that the
+    loaders will only load and parse a file once and put that in a property,
+    which will then be used the next time it is asked for metadata. However,
+    the Validator still needs to merge all metadata of one class from every
+    loader when it is requested.
+
+Enable the cache calling the
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\ValidatorBuilder::setMetadataCache`
+method of the Validator builder::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Validation;
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Mapping\Cache\ApcCache;
+
+    $validator = Validation::createValidatorBuilder()
+        // ... add loaders
+        ->setMetadataCache(new ApcCache('some_apc_prefix'));
+        ->getValidator();
+
+Using a Custom MetadataFactory
+------------------------------
+
+All the loaders and the cache are passed to an instance of
+:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\Mapping\\ClassMetadataFactory`. This
+class is responsible for creating a ``ClassMetadata`` instance from all the
+configured resources.
+
+You can also use a custom metadata factory implementation by creating a class
+which implements
+:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\MetadataFactoryInterface`. You can set
+this custom implementation using
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Validator\\ValidatorBuilder::setMetadataFactory`::
+
+    use Acme\Validation\CustomMetadataFactory;
+    use Symfony\Component\Validator\Validation;
+
+    $validator = Validation::createValidatorBuilder()
+        ->setMetadataFactory(new CustomMetadataFactory(...));
+        ->getValidator();
+
+.. caution::
+
+    Since you are using a custom metadata factory, you can't configure loaders
+    and caches using the ``add*Mapping()`` methods anymore. You now have to
+    inject them into your custom metadata factory yourself.
+
+.. _`Packagist`: https://packagist.org