File Validators

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File Validators gem adds file size and content type validations to ActiveModel. Any module that uses ActiveModel, for example ActiveRecord, can use these file validators.

Support

  • ActiveModel versions: 3.2, 4 and 5.
  • Rails versions: 3.2, 4 and 5.

As of version 2.2, activemodel 3.0 and 3.1 will no longer be supported. For activemodel 3.0 and 3.1, please use file_validators version <= 2.1.

It has been tested to work with Carrierwave, Paperclip, Dragonfly, Refile etc file uploading solutions. Validations works both before and after uploads.

Installation

Add the following to your Gemfile:

gem 'file_validators'

Examples

ActiveModel example:

class Profile
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  attr_accessor :avatar
  validates :avatar, file_size: { less_than_or_equal_to: 100.kilobytes },
                     file_content_type: { allow: ['image/jpeg', 'image/png'] } 
end

ActiveRecord example:

class Profile < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates :avatar, file_size: { less_than_or_equal_to: 100.kilobytes },
                     file_content_type: { allow: ['image/jpeg', 'image/png'] }
end

You can also use :validates_file_size and :validates_file_content_type idioms.

API

File Size Validator:

  • in: A range of bytes or a proc that returns a range ruby validates :avatar, file_size: { in: 100.kilobytes..1.megabyte }
  • less_than: Less than a number in bytes or a proc that returns a number ruby validates :avatar, file_size: { less_than: 2.gigabytes }
  • less_than_or_equal_to: Less than or equal to a number in bytes or a proc that returns a number ruby validates :avatar, file_size: { less_than_or_equal_to: 50.bytes }
  • greater_than: greater than a number in bytes or a proc that returns a number ruby validates :avatar, file_size: { greater_than: 1.byte }
  • greater_than_or_equal_to: Greater than or equal to a number in bytes or a proc that returns a number ruby validates :avatar, file_size: { greater_than_or_equal_to: 50.bytes }
  • message: Error message to display. With all the options above except :in, you will get count as a replacement. With :in you will get min and max as replacements. count, min and max each will have its value and unit together. You can write error messages without using any replacement. ruby validates :avatar, file_size: { less_than: 100.kilobytes, message: 'avatar should be less than %{count}' } ruby validates :document, file_size: { in: 1.kilobyte..1.megabyte, message: 'must be within %{min} and %{max}' }
  • if: A lambda or name of an instance method. Validation will only be run if this lambda or method returns true.
  • unless: Same as if but validates if lambda or method returns false.

You can combine different options.

validates :avatar, file_size: { less_than: 1.megabyte,
                                greater_than_or_equal_to: 20.kilobytes }

The following two examples are equivalent:

validates :avatar, file_size: { greater_than_or_equal_to: 500.kilobytes,
                                less_than_or_equal_to: 3.megabytes }

validates :avatar, file_size: { in: 500.kilobytes..3.megabytes }

Options can also take Proc/lambda:

validates :avatar, file_size: { less_than: lambda { |record| record.size_in_bytes } }

File Content Type Validator

  • allow: Allowed content types. Can be a single content type or an array. Each type can be a String or a Regexp. It also accepts proc. Allows all by default. ruby # string validates :avatar, file_content_type: { allow: 'image/jpeg' } ruby # array of strings validates :attachment, file_content_type: { allow: ['image/jpeg', 'text/plain'] } ruby # regexp validates :avatar, file_content_type: { allow: /^image\/.*/ } ruby # array of regexps validates :attachment, file_content_type: { allow: [/^image\/.*/, /^text\/.*/] } ruby # array of regexps and strings validates :attachment, file_content_type: { allow: [/^image\/.*/, 'video/mp4'] } ruby # proc/lambda example validates :video, file_content_type: { allow: lambda { |record| record.content_types } }
  • exclude: Forbidden content types. Can be a single content type or an array. Each type can be a String or a Regexp. It also accepts proc. See :allow options examples.
  • mode: :strict or :relaxed. :strict mode can detect content type based on the contents of the files. It also detects media type spoofing (see more in security). :relaxed mode uses file name to detect the content type using mime-types gem. If mode option is not set then the validator uses form supplied content type. ruby validates :avatar, file_content_type: { allow: 'image/jpeg', mode: :strict } validates :avatar, file_content_type: { allow: 'image/jpeg', mode: :relaxed }
  • message: The message to display when the uploaded file has an invalid content type. You will get types as a replacement. You can write error messages without using any replacement. ruby validates :avatar, file_content_type: { allow: ['image/jpeg', 'image/gif'], message: 'only %{types} are allowed' } ruby validates :avatar, file_content_type: { allow: ['image/jpeg', 'image/gif'], message: 'Avatar only allows jpeg and gif' }
  • if: A lambda or name of an instance method. Validation will only be run is this lambda or method returns true.
  • unless: Same as if but validates if lambda or method returns false.

You can combine :allow and :exclude:

# this will allow all the image types except png and gif
validates :avatar, file_content_type: { allow: /^image\/.*/, exclude: ['image/png', 'image/gif'] }

Security

This gem can use Unix file command to get the content type based on the content of the file rather than the extension. This prevents fake content types inserted in the request header.

It also prevents file media type spoofing. For example, user may upload a .html document as a part of the EXIF header of a valid JPEG file. Content type validator will identify its content type as image/jpeg and, without spoof detection, it may pass the validation and be saved as .html document thus exposing your application to a security vulnerability. Media type spoof detector wont let that happen. It will not allow a file having image/jpeg content type to be saved as text/plain. It checks only media type mismatch, for example text of text/plain and image of image/jpeg. So it will not prevent image/jpeg from saving as image/png as both have the same image media type.

note: This security feature is disabled by default. To enable it, first add cocaine gem in your Gemfile and then add mode: :strict option in content type validations. :strict mode may not work in direct file uploading systems as the file is not passed along with the form.

i18n Translations

File Size Errors

  • file_size_is_in: takes min and max as replacements
  • file_size_is_less_than: takes count as replacement
  • file_size_is_less_than_or_equal_to: takes count as replacement
  • file_size_is_greater_than: takes count as replacement
  • file_size_is_greater_than_or_equal_to: takes count as replacement

Content Type Errors

  • allowed_file_content_types: generated when you have specified allowed types but the content type of the file doesn't match. takes types as replacement.
  • excluded_file_content_types: generated when you have specified excluded types and the content type of the file matches anyone of them. takes types as replacement.

This gem provides en translations for this errors under errors.messages namespace. If you want to override and/or create other locales, you can check this out to see how translations are done.

You can override all of them with the :message option.

For unit format, it will use number.human.storage_units.format from your locale. For unit translation, number.human.storage_units is used. Rails applications already have these translations either in ActiveSupport's locale (Rails 4) or in ActionView's locale (Rails 3). In case your setup doesn't have the translations, here's an example for en:

en:
  number:
    human:
      storage_units:
        format: "%n %u"
        units:
          byte:
            one:   "Byte"
            other: "Bytes"
          kb: "KB"
          mb: "MB"
          gb: "GB"
          tb: "TB"

Further Instructions

If you are using :strict or :relaxed mode, for content types which are not supported by mime-types gem, you need to register those content types. For example, you can register .docx in the initializer:

# config/initializers/mime_types.rb
Mime::Type.register "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document", :docx

If you want to see what content type :strict mode returns, run this command in the shell:

$ file -b --mime-type your-file.xxx

Issues

Carrierwave - You are adding file validators to a model, then you are recommended to keep extension_white_list &/ extension_black_list in the uploaders (in case you don't have, add that method). As of this writing (see issue), Carrierwave uploaders start processing a file immediately after its assignment (even before the validators are called).

Tests

$ rake
$ rake test:unit
$ rake test:integration

# test different active model versions
$ bundle exec appraisal install
$ bundle exec appraisal rake

Problems

Please use GitHub's issue tracker.

Contributing

  1. Fork it
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Added some feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  5. Create a new Pull Request

Inspirations

License

This project rocks and uses MIT-LICENSE.