Laravel validate SMTP server settings

Question

I'm trying to validate SMTP server settings using SwiftMailer in my Laravel application.

My main issue is that if SMTP server validation fails, I want it to return the user to the form with the error message in the same way that $this->validate() does.

Here is same sample code so you can see what I'm trying to do:

public function update($id)
{
    $this->validate(request(), [
        "name" => "required|unique:email_servers,name,$id",
        "address" => "required|unique:email_servers,address,$id",
        "username" => "required",
        "password" => "nullable|confirmed",
        "security" => "nullable|exists:email_securities,value",
        "host" => "required",
        "port" => "required",
    ])->after(function ($validator) {
        try{            
            if (request()->input('security')) {
                $transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance(request()->input('host'), request()->input('port'), request()->input('security'));
            }
            else {
                $transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance(request()->input('host'), request()->input('port'));
            }

            $transport->setUsername(request()->input('username'));
            $transport->setPassword(request()->input('password'));
            $mailer = \Swift_Mailer::newInstance($transport);
            $mailer->getTransport()->start();
        }
        catch (Swift_TransportException $e) {
            $validator->errors()->add('transport_exception', $e->getMessage());
        }
        catch (Exception $e) {
            $validator->errors()->add('exception', $e->getMessage());
        }
    });

    $email_server = EmailServer::findOrFail($id);
    $email_server->update(array_filter(request()->all()));

    activity()->by(auth()->user())->on($email_server)->withProperties($email_server)->log('Updated Email Server');
    request()->session()->flash('status', 'Email Server updated!');

    return redirect()->route('backend.email_servers');
}

Now, obviously this doesn't work as $this->validate() has no after() callback.

How do I make this work the way I want so that if I were to use Validator::make it would act the same way as $this->validate()?

Answer 1

I figured it out by looking at the ValidatesRequests trait:

    $validator = Validator::make(request()->all(), [
        "name" => "required|unique:email_servers",
        "address" => "required|unique:email_servers",
        "username" => "required",
        "password" => "required|confirmed",
        "security" => "required|exists:email_securities,name",
        "host" => "required",
        "port" => "required",
    ]);
    $validator->after(function ($validator) {
        $transport_status = $this->transportStatus();

        if ($transport_status != 'OK') {
            $validator->errors()->add('transport_status', $transport_status);
        }
    });

    if ($validator->fails()) {
        $this->throwValidationException(request(), $validator);
    }
    else {
        $email_server = EmailServer::create(request()->all());

        activity()->by(auth()->user())->on($email_server)->withProperties($email_server->toArray())->log('Created Email Server');
        request()->session()->flash('status', 'Email Server created!');

        return redirect()->route('backend.email_servers');
    }

public function transportStatus()
{
    try {
        $security = (request()->input('security') != 'None') ? request()->input('security') : null;
        $transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance(request()->input('host'), request()->input('port'), $security);
        $transport->setUsername(request()->input('username'));
        $transport->setPassword(request()->input('password'));
        $mailer = \Swift_Mailer::newInstance($transport);
        $mailer->getTransport()->start();

        return 'OK';
    }
    catch (Swift_TransportException $e) {
        return $e->getMessage();
    }
}