Available validations

Contentful stores user input as structured data and. The validations you can apply to a field depend on the field type. The table below lists the available validations and indicates which field types you can use them with.

NameDescriptionField type
Sizeensures the size of a value is within a specified rangeText, Symbol, Object, Multiple symbols, Multiple entries, Multiple assets
Predefined valuesensures only predefined values are acceptedText, Symbol, Number, Decimal number
Regexensures the values matches a regular expressionText, Symbol
Date rangeensures the date is within a specified rangeDate
Number of items ensures the number of items is within a specified rangeMultiple symbols, Multiple entries, Multiple assets
Asset file sizeensures the file size is within a specified rangeAsset, Multiple assets
Image dimensionensures the image dimensions are within a specified rangeAsset, Multiple assets
Typeensures the asset/reference is of a specified typeEntry, Multiple entries, Asset, Multiple assets

Size

Validates that the size of a text, object or symbol entry is within a specified range. You can define a range by specifying the ‘min’ and the ‘max’ values (the values are included in the range). Alternatively, you can specify only the ‘min’ or ‘max’ value to set a constraint on a the minimum/maximum allowed value.

Predefined values

Validates that the value of a field belongs to a predefined set. To define a set, add the desired values one by one. Note that currently there is a limit of 50 predefined values you can define. By default, the predefined values will be displayed in the entry editor as a drop-down list.

Regular Expression (Regex)

Validates that the value of a field matches a specific pattern defined by a regular expression. You can further modify pattern matching by including optional flags, such as return all matches (‘g’), perform case-insensitive (‘i’) or multi-line (‘m’) search. Consult JavaScript Regular Expressions for more information on constructing valid regular expressions.

For users’ convenience, Contentful validations module provides a number of predefined regex rules covering mainstream scenarios.

E-mail

An email consist of a user name, followed by ‘@’ followed by a domain name. Characters allowed in a user name are alphanumeric characters (a-z, 0-9), ‘_’, ‘.’, ‘-’. The same holds for domain names.

Allowed valuesDisallowed values
name@domain.com 1-2.3_4@domain.com name@sub.domain.comspecial%char@domain.com name@domain notanemail.com

URL

A valid URL requires a protocol prefix (ftp, http, https) and a top-level domain.

Allowed valuesDisallowed values
http://foo.com/blah_blah http://userid:password@example.com:8080 http://foo.com/(something)?after=parensspecial%char@domain.com name@domain notanemail.com

Date (US)

Dates in the format ‘MM/DD/YYYY’ where each character represents a digit. Single-digit months and days may or may not have a leading zero. The year may have two or four digits. Please note that only dates after 1900 are allowed.

Allowed valuesDisallowed values
10/11/2012 1-7-1968 5.27.0530 Apr 2001 01-01-1890 21.09.90

Date (European)

Dates in the format ‘DD/MM/YYYY’. The same restrictions as for the US dates apply.

Allowed valuesDisallowed values
12/12/2014 17-1-1978 27.04.93 15 5 190012/13/2014 1-17-1978 27041950 12/1998

Phone number (US)

Format ‘X-XXX-XXX-XXXX’ or ‘X-(XXX)-XXX-XXXX’ where each X is a digit. Dots (‘.’) and a single whitespace are also accepted as separators instead of ‘-’. The separators may be omitted.

Allowed valuesDisallowed values
1-123-456-7890 1-123.555 1111 18001114545 1-(123) 415-11111_111-111-1111 12345 1-111-1a1-1111 1-800-diamonds

US zip code

Accepts zip codes entered as five digits (‘XXXXX’) or five plus four digits ‘XXXXX-XXXX’.

Allowed valuesDisallowed values
58701-0124 587010124 58701587011 58-7801 58701-0 5870101234 587011-0124

Time (12 hrs)

Accepts time values in the HH:MM:SS AM/PM format. Allowed hours are from 01 to 12, columns are required, while the use of seconds is optional. The input must contain AM/PM notation in either lower- or upper-case.

Allowed valuesDisallowed values
12:15 am 12.56.01 AM 11 59 03 PM 7:35 PM12:15 121503 12am 11:67

Time (24 hrs)

Accepts time values in the HH:MM:SS format. Allowed hours are from 01 to 24, columns are required, while the use of seconds is optional. The input cannot contain AM/PM notation.

Allowed valuesDisallowed values
12:15 12.56.01 11 59 03 23:571215 121503 12 am 11:67

Range

Validates that the value of a number field is within a specified range. You can use integers or decimal numbers to define the range and negative numbers are also accepted. Alternatively, you can define only the maximum or minimum value.

Date Range

Validates that the value of a date field is within a specified range. In addition to the date, the range requires time values, set these to 00:00 when the time value is optional.

Please note that for storing time values without a date, we recommend using a relevant Regex rule with a Symbol or Text field type.

Number of items

Validates that the number of symbols/ entries / assets is within a specified range. Only integers are allowed as input values.

File size

Validates that the size of an asset is within a specified range. Please note that the entered values are stored as bytes, but displayed as Bytes / Kb / Mb.

Image dimensions

Validates that the dimensions of an image are within a specified range. The entered values are interpreted as pixels and are inclusive of the range. Alternatively, you can specify only a desired height or width.

Please note that the validation will only be applied to assets that are identified as images.

Type

Validates that the attached entry / uploaded asset is of the specified type. The types of entries are based on content types available within a space. Asset types are based on MIME groups and include:

  • Attachment

  • Plain text

  • Image

  • Audio

  • Video

  • Rich text

  • Presentation

  • Spreadsheet

  • PDF document

  • Archive

  • Code

  • Markup

Please consult Wikipedia page for the list of file types corresponding to specific MIME types.