Cakephp api POST request , saving data without validation - cakephp

Question

I have created a route with Api prefix
$routes->scope('/api', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {
$routes->setExtensions(['json']);
$routes->post(
'/add-categories',
['controller' => 'Miles', 'action' => 'addCategories','prefix'=>'Api']
);
}
I have created a controller file in directory Controller/Api/MilesController.php
I have created a addCategory method like below
public function addCategories()
{
$categoriesTable = $this->fetchTable('Categories');
$categoryEnt = $categoriesTable->newEmptyEntity();
if ($this->request->is('post')) {
$category = $categoriesTable->patchEntity($categoryEnt, $this->request->getData());
if ($categoriesTable->save($category)) {
$responseBody = [
'status' => 201,
'data' => $category
];
}else{
$responseBody = [
'status' => 400,
'data' => $category->getErrors()
];
}
}
$this->set(compact('responseBody'));
$this->viewBuilder()->setOption('serialize', ['responseBody']);
}
In postman if I try to send a post request without any data , then I getting the response like below
{
"responseBody": {
"status": 201,
"data": {
"created": "2022-05-10T20:04:13+09:00",
"modified": "2022-05-10T20:04:13+09:00",
"id": 8
}
}
}
My Model/Table/CategoriesTable.php looks like
<?php
declare(strict_types=1);
namespace App\Model\Table;
use Cake\ORM\Query;
use Cake\ORM\RulesChecker;
use Cake\ORM\Table;
use Cake\Validation\Validator;
class CategoriesTable extends Table
{
public function initialize(array $config): void
{
parent::initialize($config);
$this->setTable('categories');
$this->setDisplayField('name');
$this->setPrimaryKey('id');
$this->addBehavior('Timestamp');
$this->hasMany('Products', [
'foreignKey' => 'category_id',
]);
}
public function validationDefault(Validator $validator): Validator
{
$validator
->allowEmptyString('id', null, 'create');
$validator
->scalar('title')
->notEmptyString('title');
$validator
->boolean('status')
->notEmptyString('status');
$validator
->scalar('imageUrl')
->allowEmptyFile('imageUrl');
return $validator;
}
}
Why my notEmptyString validation not working which I have written in CategoriesTable.php file ?
Note : This Api/MilesController.php has no self model. How can I apply CategoriesTable validation here ?

Answer 1

None of your fields are set as being required, ie they are all optional, and when an optional field is missing, no validation rules will be applied.
So for all fields that must be present, use requirePresence(), for example:
$validator
->requirePresence('title', 'create') // required on create, optional on update
->scalar('title')
->notEmptyString('title');
See also
Cookbook > Validation > Creating Validators > Requiring Field Presence