Item12441: Simple RegExp Implementation for uncommon data and more variable Form validation

I saw no direct way to validate uncommon data (such as roomnumbers, printer names ...) in terms of FormPlugin -validation. Regular expressions and methods are encapsulated (good practise), but it would be nice to have some more flexible tool. It is not a big feature but it would ease work a lot.

Description

For the FormPlugin there could be a new method for validation called "regexp" which gets a simple regular expression as parameter. It should also not destroy already implemented validation mechanisms/cause security issues.

Example

...
%FORMELEMENT{
   name="roomnr"
   title="Roomnumber"
   type="text"
   value=""
   validate="{
      rules: {
         regexpr : '/^[(Aa)|(Bb)|(Cc)][1-9][1-9][1-9]$/'
      },
      messages: {
         regexpr : 'Roomnumbers start with A,B or C, followed by 3 numbers.'
      }
   }" 
}%
...

Implementation

Here is a list of things I changed and how it worked for me (installation out of the debian repo):

in ../lib/Foswiki/Plugins/FormPlugin/Validation/BackendValidator.pm add:

sub validate_regexpr {
    my ( $name , $value , $conditionalValue ) = @_;
    my $isValid = '';
    $conditionalValue =~ s/^\///g;  # just that it looks familiar
    $conditionalValue =~ s/\/$//g;  #
    $conditionalValue =~ s/&vbar;/\|/g;  #replace &vbar; by |
    #
    # better check of input, propably by eval()?
    #
    if ( $conditionalValue ) {
        try {
            $isValid = ( $value =~ m/($conditionalValue)/ );
        }
        catch Error with {
            my $e = shift;
            Foswiki::Func::writeDebug( "validate_regexpr ", $e, " had a problem" );
            Foswiki::Func::writeDebug( "regExString:" , $conditionalValue);
        };
    }
    my $message =
      $isValid
      ? ''
      : Foswiki::Plugins::FormPlugin::Validate::ValidationInstruction::parseMessage(
        $name);
    return ( $isValid, $message );
}

in ../lib/Foswiki/FormPlugin/Constants.pm:

our $ERROR_MESSAGES = {
    required    => "This field is required.",
    remote      => "Please fix this field.",
    email       => "Please enter a valid email address.",
    multiemail  => "Please enter one or more valid email addresses.",
    url         => "Please enter a valid URL.",
    date        => "Please enter a valid date.",
    dateISO     => "Please enter a valid date (ISO).",
    number      => "Please enter a valid number.",
    integer     => "Please enter a rounded number.",
    float       => "Please enter a fractional number.",
    digits      => "Please enter only digits.",
    creditcard  => "Please enter a valid credit card number.",
    equalTo     => "Please enter the same value again.",
    accept      => "Please enter a value with a valid extension.",
    maxlength   => "Please enter no more than {0} characters.",
    minlength   => "Please enter at least {0} characters.",
    rangelength => "Please enter a value between {0} and {1} characters long.",
    range       => "Please enter a value between {0} and {1}.",
    max         => "Please enter a value less than or equal to {0}.",
    min         => "Please enter a value greater than or equal to {0}.",
    wikiword    => "Please enter a <nop>WikiWord.",
    regexpr     => "Value did not match pattern"
};

in ../foswiki/pub/System/JQueryPlugin/plugins/validate/jquery.validate.methods and jquery.validate.foswiki-methods.uncompressed.js add:

jQuery.validator.addMethod(
    "regexpr", 
    function(value, element, param) {
    //param comes as string / better check for errors?
      var p = new RegExp(param);
     return this.optional(element) || p.test(value);
    }, 
    "Invalid format."
);

-- RobertFelber - 18 Mar 2013

Michael, Can you check out these enhancements? Can they be applied to the FormPlugin and JQueryPlugin?

-- GeorgeClark - 24 Dec 2014

Adding method "regexpr" to jquery.validate.foswiki-methods.uncompressed.js should be straight forward. Though I don't have a test to verify it is working correctly.

Can't speak for FormPlugin as I never used it.

-- MichaelDaum - 07 Jan 2015

Removing JQueryPlugin from the list of components. This bug item is requiring actions. Alas, mentioned people have left the project.

-- MichaelDaum - 19 Jan 2017

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