Validating Data

Validation and application rules work exactly as in core CakePHP — see the CakePHP Validating Data cookbook. The plugin adds one extension: per-embed validators that run on nested embed data during save.

Embedded Validators

A JsonFieldEmbed association can carry an embeddedValidator callable. It is invoked for each child — with the hydrated JsonEntity or the plain array for a patch — before the embed is persisted, and should throw on invalid data.

Configure it on the association object built by JsonFieldAssociationBuilder:

use Crustum\JsonField\ORM\Association\JsonFieldAssociationBuilder;

$embeds = (new JsonFieldAssociationBuilder())->buildEmbeds(Article::class, $articles);
$embeds['chapters']->setEmbeddedValidator(function (ArticleChapter|array $child): void {
    if (is_array($child) || $child->get('name') === 'bad') {
        throw new InvalidArgumentException('invalid chapter');
    }
});

Because the validator runs inside the behavior's beforeSave (both for whole-column and atomic writes), an invalid nested embed aborts the whole save — the same fail-fast guarantee you get from a top-level Validator. The root entity's standard validation (Table validators, the RulesChecker) is unchanged and runs alongside it.

NOTE

Embedded validators validate nested JSON data only. Cross-field and foreign-key rules still live on the Table's Validator / RulesChecker as usual.