What is express-validator?
express-validator is a set of express.js middlewares that wraps validator.js, a library for string validation and sanitization. It provides a comprehensive set of validation and sanitization middlewares for handling user input in express applications.
What are express-validator's main functionalities?
Validation
This feature allows you to validate user input. In this example, the 'username' field must be alphanumeric and the 'password' field must be at least 5 characters long. If the validation fails, a 400 status code with the validation errors is returned.
const { body, validationResult } = require('express-validator');
app.post('/user', [
body('username').isAlphanumeric(),
body('password').isLength({ min: 5 })
], (req, res) => {
const errors = validationResult(req);
if (!errors.isEmpty()) {
return res.status(400).json({ errors: errors.array() });
}
res.send('User is valid');
});
Sanitization
This feature allows you to sanitize user input. In this example, the 'email' field is normalized to a standard email format and the 'username' field is trimmed of whitespace and escaped to prevent HTML injection.
const { body } = require('express-validator');
app.post('/user', [
body('email').normalizeEmail(),
body('username').trim().escape()
], (req, res) => {
res.send('User input is sanitized');
});
Custom Validators
This feature allows you to create custom validation logic. In this example, the 'age' field must be at least 18. If the validation fails, a 400 status code with the validation errors is returned.
const { body, validationResult } = require('express-validator');
app.post('/user', [
body('age').custom(value => {
if (value < 18) {
throw new Error('Age must be at least 18');
}
return true;
})
], (req, res) => {
const errors = validationResult(req);
if (!errors.isEmpty()) {
return res.status(400).json({ errors: errors.array() });
}
res.send('User is valid');
});
Other packages similar to express-validator
joi
Joi is a powerful schema description language and data validator for JavaScript. It allows you to create blueprints or schemas for JavaScript objects to ensure validation of key information. Compared to express-validator, Joi is more focused on schema-based validation and is not tied to express.js.
yup
Yup is a JavaScript schema builder for value parsing and validation. It is similar to Joi but is more lightweight and has a more modern API. Like Joi, Yup is not tied to express.js and can be used in various JavaScript environments.
validator
Validator is a library of string validators and sanitizers. It is the underlying library used by express-validator for its validation and sanitization functions. While it provides a comprehensive set of validation and sanitization functions, it does not provide middleware for express.js out of the box.