Defra Ruby Validators

Package of validations commonly used in Defra Rails based digital services.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile

gem "defra_ruby_validators"

And then update your dependencies by calling

bundle install

With this gem installed, a number of active model based validators become available.

This validator checks the value provided is one of our known business types

• soleTrader
• limitedCompany
• partnership
• limitedLiabilityPartnership
• localAuthority
• charity

If blank or not one of these it will return an error.

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :business_type, "defra_ruby/validators/business_type": true

If you want to include overseas in the accepted business types, you can enable this in the options:

validates :business_type, "defra_ruby/validators/business_type": { allow_overseas: true }

This validator checks the company registration number provided. Specifically it first checks that it matches a known format. All registration numbers are 8 characters long but can be formatted in the following ways.

• 09764739
• 10997904
• SC534714
• IP00141R

If the format is valid, it then makes a call to Companies House to validate that the number

• is recognised
• belongs to an 'active' company

A company can be in various states for example liquidation, which means for the purposes of Defra its not a valid entity. So we check the status along with the number as part of the validation.

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :company_no, "defra_ruby/validators/companies_house_number": true

The company number also accepts a company_type option. This checks the type attribute in the API response. To validate that the company number is for a Limited Company, for example:

validates :company_no, "defra_ruby/validators/companies_house_number": { company_type: "ltd" }

Note: to mock the Companies House service with the company_type option, you will need to be running at least v2.2.0 of defra-ruby-mocks.

This validator checks the value is present and in a format that meets RFC 2822 and RFC 3696 (we use validates_email_format_of to check the format).

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :email, "defra_ruby/validators/email": true

This validator checks the value is present, is in the correct format for an Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference, and that its valid (we use os_map_ref to check the coordinate is valid).

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :grid_reference, "defra_ruby/validators/grid_reference": true

This validator checks the value provided is one of our accepted locations

• england
• northern_ireland
• scotland
• wales

If blank or not one of these it will return an error.

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :location, "defra_ruby/validators/location": true

If you want to include overseas in the accepted locations, you can enable this in the options:

validates :location, "defra_ruby/validators/location": { allow_overseas: true }

This validator checks the value provided is present and not a date in the future (<= Date.today).

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :date_received, "defra_ruby/validators/past_date_validator": true

This validator checks the value is present, is not too long (15 is th maximum length for any phone number), and is in the correct format as per E.164 (we use phonelib to check the format).

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :phone_number, "defra_ruby/validators/phone_number": true

This validator checks the value is present, is not too long (15 is th maximum length for any phone number), is a mobile phone number, and is in the correct format as per E.164 (we use phonelib to check the format).

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :mobile_phone_number, "defra_ruby/validators/mobile_phone_number": true

This validator checks the value provided for 'position' i.e. someones role or title within an organisation. This is an optional field so the validator has to handle the value being blank. If it's not then it can be no longer than 70 characters and only include letters, spaces, commas, full stops, hyphens and apostrophes else it will return an error.

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :position, "defra_ruby/validators/position": true

This validator checks the value is present and in the correct format, which in this case is that the value has a length of 24. If blank or not in a valid format it will return an error.

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :token, "defra_ruby/validators/token": true

This validator checks the value provided is either "true" or "false". If blank or not one of these it will return an error.

Add it to your model or form object using

validates :is_a_farmer, "defra_ruby/validators/true_false": true

All the validators in this gem have built-in error messages. But if you want, you can provide your own custom message in the app, like this:

validates :position, "defra_ruby/validators/position": { messages: { too_long: "This position is too long" } }

You will need to know the error symbol raised by the validator (eg too_long or invalid_format).

If you have an idea you'd like to contribute please log an issue.

All contributions should be submitted via a pull request.

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