Validation

JSON schema (opens new window) validation can be enabled by setting the jsonSchema property of a model class. The validation is ran each time a Model instance is created.

You rarely need to call $validate method explicitly, but you can do it when needed. If validation fails a ValidationError will be thrown. Since we use Promises, this usually means that a promise will be rejected with an instance of ValidationError.

See the recipe book for instructions if you want to use some other validation library.

Examples

All these will trigger the validation:

Person.fromJson({ firstName: 'jennifer', lastName: 'Lawrence' });
await Person.query().insert({ firstName: 'jennifer', lastName: 'Lawrence' });
await Person.query()
  .update({ firstName: 'jennifer', lastName: 'Lawrence' })
  .where('id', 10);

// Patch operation ignores the `required` property of the schema
// and only validates the given properties. This allows a subset
// of model's properties to be updated.
await Person.query()
  .patch({ age: 24 })
  .where('age', '<', 24);

await Person.query().insertGraph({
  firstName: 'Jennifer',
  pets: [
    {
      name: 'Fluffy'
    }
  ]
});

await Person.query().upsertGraph({
  id: 1,
  pets: [
    {
      name: 'Fluffy II'
    }
  ]
});

Validation errors provide detailed error message:

try {
  await Person.query().insert({ firstName: 'jennifer' });
} catch (err) {
  console.log(err instanceof objection.ValidationError); // --> true
  console.log(err.data); // --> {lastName: [{message: 'required property missing', ...}]}
}

Error parameters returned by ValidationError could be used to provide custom error messages:

try {
  await Person.query().insert({ firstName: 'jennifer' });
} catch (err) {
  let lastNameErrors = err.data.lastName;

  for (let i = 0; i < lastNameErrors.length; ++i) {
    let lastNameError = lastNameErrors[i];

    if (lastNameError.keyword === 'required') {
      console.log('This field is required!');
    } else if (lastNameError.keyword === 'minLength') {
      console.log('Must be longer than ' + lastNameError.params.limit);
    } else {
      console.log(lastNameError.message); // Fallback to default error message
    }
  }
}