Matt Stauffer has kicked off a new series on his blog about some of the new features in Laravel 5.2 and how to use them effectively. In this first part of the series he looks at form array validation and using it on more complex form submissions.

Form array validation simplifies the process of validating the somewhat abnormal shape of data HTML forms pass in when the array syntax is used. If you're not familiar with it, a common use case is when you allow a user to add multiple instances of the same type on one form.

[...] But how do we validate this? Prior to 5.2, it's a bunch of manual work. Now, Laravel understands this nesting structure and can validate against it uniquely.

He compares the new validation handling with a standard validator (for a single text string) and shows how a "dot" (period) notation can be used to define the more complex rules. You can even use asterisks for wildcard making at any level. Definitely a nice addition to the validation handling in the framework.