Skip to main content
Version: v2

Validation & Sanitization

Validation checks if an input meets a set of criteria (such as the value of a property is a string).

Sanitization modifies the input to ensure that it is valid (such as coercing a type).

Foal offers several utils and hooks to handle both validation and sanitization. They are particularly useful for checking and transforming parts of HTTP requests (such as the body).

With a JSON Schema (AJV)

Ajv, the JSON Schema Validator

FoalTS default validation and sanitization system is based on AJV version 6, a fast JSON Schema Validator. You'll find more details on how to define a shema on its website.

Options

Here is the list of AJV options that can be overridden with FoalTS configuration system.

Ajv optionConfiguration keyFoalTS default
$datasettings.ajv.$data-
allErrorssettings.ajv.allErrors-
coerceTypessettings.ajv.coerceTypetrue
nullablesettings.ajv.nullable-
removeAdditionalsettings.ajv.removeAdditionaltrue
useDefaultssettings.ajv.useDefaultstrue

Example

settings:
ajv:
coerceTypes: true

Validation & Sanitization of HTTP Requests

FoalTS provides many hooks to validate and sanitize HTTP requests. When validation fails, they return an HttpResponseBadRequest object whose body contains the validation errors.

Example

import { Context, HttpResponseOK, Post, ValidateBody } from '@foal/core';

export class MyController {

@Post('/user')
@ValidateBody({
additionalProperties: false,
properties: {
firstName: { type: 'string' },
lastName: { type: 'string' },
},
required: [ 'firstName', 'lastName' ],
type: 'object'
})
postUser(ctx: Context) {
// In this method we are sure that firstName and lastName
// are defined thanks to the above hook.
console.log(
ctx.request.body.firstName, ctx.request.body.lastName
);
return new HttpResponseOK();
}

}

ValidateBody

It validates the request body (Context.request.body).

HTTP request

POST /products

{
"price": "hello world"
}

Controller (first example)

import { Post, ValidateBody } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {
@Post('/products')
@ValidateBody({
additionalProperties: false,
properties: {
price: { type: 'integer' },
},
required: [ 'price' ],
type: 'object'
})
createProduct() {
// ...
}
}

Controller (second example)

import { Post, ValidateBody } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {
schema = {
additionalProperties: false,
properties: {
price: { type: 'integer' },
},
required: [ 'price' ],
type: 'object'
};

@Post('/products')
@ValidateBody(controller => controller.schema)
createProduct() {
// ...
}
}

HTTP response (400 - BAD REQUEST)

{
"body": [
{
"dataPath": ".price",
"keyword": "type",
"message": "should be integer",
"params": {
"type": "integer"
},
"schemaPath": "#/properties/price/type"
}
]
}

ValidateHeader

It validates the request headers (Context.request.headers).

HTTP request

GET /products
Authorization: xxx
A-Number: hello

Controller (first example)

import { Post, ValidateHeader } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {
@Get('/products')
@ValidateHeader('Authorization')
@ValidateHeader('A-Number', { type: 'integer' }, { required: false })
readProducts() {
// ...
}
}

Controller (second example)

import { Post, ValidateHeader } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {
schema = { type: 'integer' };

@Get('/products')
@ValidateHeader('Authorization')
@ValidateHeader('A-Number', c => c.schema, { required: false })
readProducts() {
// ...
}
}

HTTP response (400 - BAD REQUEST)

{
"headers": [
{
"dataPath:" "['a-number']",
"keyword": "type",
"message": "should be integer",
"params": {
"type": "integer"
},
"schemaPath": "#/properties/a-number/type"
}
]
}

ValidateCookie

It validates the request cookies (Context.request.cookies).

HTTP request

GET /products
Cookies: Authorization=xxx; A-Number=hello

Controller (first example)

import { Post, ValidateCookie } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {
@Get('/products')
@ValidateCookie('Authorization')
@ValidateCookie('A-Number', { type: 'integer' }, { required: false })
readProducts() {
// ...
}
}

Controller (second example)

import { Post, ValidateCookie } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {
schema = { type: 'integer' };

@Get('/products')
@ValidateCookie('Authorization')
@ValidateCookie('A-Number', c => c.schema, { required: false })
readProducts() {
// ...
}
}

HTTP response (400 - BAD REQUEST)

{
"cookies": [
{
"dataPath": "['a-number']",
"keyword": "type",
"message": "should be integer",
"params": {
"type": "integer"
},
"schemaPath": "#/properties/a-number/type"
}
]
}

ValidatePathParam

It validates the request path parameter (Context.request.params).

HTTP request

GET /products/xxx

Controller (first example)

import { Post, ValidatePathParam } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {
@Get('/products/:productId')
@ValidatePathParam('productId', { type: 'integer' })
readProducts() {
// ...
}
}

Controller (second example)

import { Post, ValidatePathParam } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {
schema = { type: 'integer' };

@Get('/products/:productId')
@ValidatePathParam('productId', c => c.schema)
readProducts() {
// ...
}
}

HTTP response (400 - BAD REQUEST)

{
"pathParams": [
{
"dataPath": ".productId",
"keyword": "type",
"message": "should be integer",
"params": {
"type": "integer"
},
"schemaPath": "#/properties/productId/type"
}
]
}

ValidateQueryParam

It validates the request query (Context.request.query).

HTTP request

GET /products?authorization=xxx&a-number=hello

Controller (first example)

import { Post, ValidateQueryParam } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {
@Get('/products')
@ValidateQueryParam('authorization')
@ValidateQueryParam('a-number', { type: 'integer' }, { required: false })
readProducts() {
// ...
}
}

Controller (second example)

import { Post, ValidateQueryParam } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {
schema = { type: 'integer' };

@Get('/products')
@ValidateQueryParam('authorization')
@ValidateQueryParam('a-number', c => c.schema, { required: false })
readProducts() {
// ...
}
}

HTTP response (400 - BAD REQUEST)

{
"query": [
{
"dataPath": "['a-number']",
"keyword": "type",
"message": "should be integer",
"params": {
"type": "integer"
},
"schemaPath": "#/properties/a-number/type"
}
]
}

Sanitization Example

import { Context, HttpResponseOK, Post, ValidateBody } from '@foal/core';

export class AppController {

@Post('/no-sanitization')
noSanitization(ctx: Context) {
return new HttpResponseOK(ctx.request.body);
}

@Post('/sanitization')
@ValidateBody({
additionalProperties: false,
properties: {
age: { type: 'number' },
name: { type: 'string' },
},
required: [ 'name', 'age' ],
type: 'object'
})
sanitization(ctx: Context) {
return new HttpResponseOK(ctx.request.body);
}

}

Assuming that you did not change Foal's default configuration of Ajv (see above), you will get these results:

RequestResponse
POST /no-sanitization { name: 'Alex', age: '34', city: 'Paris' }{ name: 'Alex', age: '34', city: 'Paris' }
POST /sanitization { name: 'Alex', age: '34', city: 'Paris' }{ name: 'Alex', age: 34 }

Custom Error Messages

npm install ajv-errors@1

You can customize the errors returned by the validation hooks by using the ajv-errors plugin (version 1).

Configuration

settings:
ajv:
allErrors: true

Example

import { Context, getAjvInstance, HttpResponseOK, Post, ValidateBody } from '@foal/core';
import * as ajvErrors from 'ajv-errors';

export class AppController {

init() {
ajvErrors(getAjvInstance());
}

@Post('/products')
@ValidateBody({
additionalProperties: false,
errorMessage: 'The submitted product is incorrect.',
properties: {
name: { type: 'string' }
},
required: [ 'name' ],
type: 'object',
})
createProduct(ctx: Context) {
// ...
return new HttpResponseOK(ctx.request.body);
}

}

Referencing Schemas

The example below shows how a schema can be defined and reused in several hooks.

Example

import { Context, getAjvInstance, HttpResponseOK, Post, ValidateBody } from '@foal/core';

const productSchema = {
additionalProperties: false,
properties: {
name: { type: 'string' }
},
required: [ 'name' ],
type: 'object',
};

export class ProductController {

boot() {
getAjvInstance()
.addSchema(productSchema, 'Product');
}

@Post('/products')
@ValidateBody({
$ref: 'Product'
})
createProduct(ctx: Context) {
// ...
return new HttpResponseOK(ctx.request.body);
}

}

With a Validation Class (class-validator)

The class-validator library can also be used in Foal to validate an object against a validation class.

npm install class-validator

Example

import {validate, Contains, IsInt, Length, IsEmail, IsFQDN, IsDate, Min, Max} from "class-validator";

export class Post {

@IsInt()
@Min(0)
@Max(10)
rating: number;

@IsEmail()
email: string;

}

let post = new Post();
post.rating = 11; // should not pass
post.email = "google.com"; // should not pass

validate(post).then(errors => { // errors is an array of validation errors
if (errors.length > 0) {
console.log("validation failed. errors: ", errors);
} else {
console.log("validation succeed");
}
});

Usage with a Hook

npm install class-transformer class-validator @foal/typestack

If you want to use it within a hook to validate request bodies, you can install the package @foal/typestack for this. It provides a @ValidateBody hook that validates the body against a given validator. This body is also unserialized and turned into an instance of the class.

social-post.validator.ts

import { Contains, Length } from 'class-validator';

export class SocialPost {

@Length(10, 20)
title: string;

@Contains('hello')
text: string;

}

social-post.controller.ts (first example)

import { Context, HttpResponseCreated, Post } from '@foal/core';
import { ValidateBody } from '@foal/typestack';
import { SocialPost } from './social-post.validator';

export class SocialPostController {

@Post()
@ValidateBody(SocialPost, { /* options if relevant */ })
createSocialPost(ctx: Context) {
// ctx.request.body is an instance of SocialPost.
// ...
return new HttpResponseCreated();
}

}

social-post.controller.ts (second example)

import { Context, HttpResponseCreated, Post } from '@foal/core';
import { ValidateBody } from '@foal/typestack';
import { SocialPost } from './social-post.validator';

export class SocialPostController {
entityClass = SocialPost;

@Post()
@ValidateBody(controller => controller.entityClass, { /* options if relevant */ })
createSocialPost(ctx: Context) {
// ctx.request.body is an instance of SocialPost.
// ...
return new HttpResponseCreated();
}

}

HTTP request (example)

POST /

{
"text": "foo"
}

HTTP response (example)

[
{
"children": [],
"constraints": { "length": "title must be longer than or equal to 10 characters" },
"property": "title",
"target": { "text": "foo" },
},
{
"children": [],
"constraints": { "contains": "text must contain a hello string" },
"property": "text",
"target": { "text": "foo" },
"value": "foo",
}
]

The hook takes also an optional parameter to specify the options of the class-transformer and class-validator libraries.

Usage with TypeORM entities

The validation decorators are compatible with TypeORM entities. So you can use one single class to define both your model and validation rules.

import { Entity, PrimaryGeneratedColumn, Column } from 'typeorm';
import { Contains, IsInt, Length, IsEmail, IsFQDN, IsDate, Min, Max } from 'class-validator';

@Entity()
export class Post {

@PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
id: number;

@Column()
@Length(10, 20)
title: string;

@Column()
@Contains("hello")
text: string;

@Column()
@IsInt()
@Min(0)
@Max(10)
rating: number;

@Column()
@IsEmail()
email: string;

@Column()
@IsFQDN()
site: string;

@Column()
@IsDate()
createDate: Date;

}