Laravel 5.1 Modify input before form request validation

Question

Is there a way to modify input fields inside a form request class before the validation takes place?

I want to modify some input date fields as follows but it doesn't seem to work.

When I set $this->start_dt input field to 2016-02-06 12:00:00 and $this->end_dt to 2016-02-06 13:00:00 I still get validation error "end_dt must be after start_dt". Which means the input request values aren't getting changed when you update $this->start_dt and $this->end_dt inside the rules() function.

public function rules()
{
    if ($this->start_dt){
        $this->start_dt = Carbon::createFromFormat('d M Y H:i:s', $this->start_dt . ' ' . $this->start_hr . ':'. $this->start_min . ':00');
    }

    if ($this->end_dt){
        $this->end_dt = Carbon::createFromFormat('d M Y H:i:s', $this->end_dt . ' ' . $this->end_hr . ':'. $this->end_min . ':00');
    }

    return [
        'start_dt' => 'required|date|after:yesterday',
        'end_dt' => 'required|date|after:start_dt|before:' . Carbon::parse($this->start_dt)->addDays(30)            
    ];
}

Note: start_dt and end_dt are date picker fields and the start_hr, start_min are drop down fields. Hence I need to create a datetime by combining all the fields so that I can compare.

Answer 1

As of laravel 5.4 you can override the prepareForValidation method of the ValidatesWhenResolvedTrait to modify any input. Something similar should be possible for laravel 5.1.

Example in your Request

/**
 * Modify the input values
 *
 * @return void
 */
protected function prepareForValidation() {

    // get the input
    $input = array_map('trim', $this->all());

    // check newsletter
    if (!isset($input['newsletter'])) {
        $input['newsletter'] = false;
    }

    // replace old input with new input
    $this->replace($input);
}

Answer 2

The FormRequest has a method validationData() that return the data to validate, so i'm overriding it in my form request:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Requests;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;

class MyClassRequest extends FormRequest
{
    ...
    /**
     * Get data to be validated from the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function validationData() {
        return array_merge(
            $this->all(),
            [
                'number' => preg_replace("/[^0-9]/", "", $this->number)
            ]
        );
    }
    ...
}

It work fine i'm using Laravel 5.4 :)