A validator validates a given value - which might be a primitive, or even complex, nested data. At the same time, a validator implicitly defines a 'data type' (which can be a logical type).
For example, strings are usually meant to be of type text - which equals the validator codename\core\validator\text.
If your string is a ISO-formatted datetime (f.e. 2021-11-22 12:34:56), you can use the validator text_timestamp (class: codename\core\validator\text\timestamp), which is the default one to use for this kind of logical type (and for historical reasons).
Defining this kind of field in a model will help the architect to create an appropriate column in your database, as we still handle those datetime values as strings in PHP, but we leverage DB-provided, optimized fields/types/columns for this, if available.
Some basic validators are already provided in the core framework, here's an overview of some important ones and some to give an impression of logical (sub-)types.
| Validator/Data type | Class (rel. to codename\core\validator) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| boolean | boolean |
Bool validation |
| text | text |
Text validation |
| text_email | text\email |
Email validation |
| text_json | text\json |
JSON string validation |
| text_color_hex | text\color\hex |
Color string in HEX-format (f.e. #FF00FF) |
| text_timestamp | text\timestamp |
ISO-datetime formatted string |
| text_date | text\date |
ISO-date formatted string |
| number | number |
Base number/numerical validator, includes floats/doubles/decimals |
| number_natural | number\natural |
Though misleading name, integer validation (no fractions/real parts) |
| structure | structure |
Arrays, associative arrays |