Email Validator Laravel Package

Getting Started

Start by installing the package with Composer:

composer require egulias/email-validator  

Then, use the basic EmailValidator class with a validation strategy. The simplest approach is RFC-compliant validation:

use Egulias\EmailValidator\EmailValidator;
use Egulias\EmailValidator\Validation\RFCValidation;

$validator = new EmailValidator();
isValid('user@example.com', new RFCValidation()); // true

This covers standard email structure per RFC 5321/5322. For production-grade validation, combine validations (e.g., RFCValidation + DNSCheckValidation) via MultipleValidationWithAnd.

Implementation Patterns

• Combine validations for layered checks: Use MultipleValidationWithAnd to enforce both structural validity (RFC) and domainReachability (DNS).

  $validator->isValid('user@domain.com', new MultipleValidationWithAnd([
      new RFCValidation(),
      new DNSCheckValidation() // Requires PHP Intl
  ]));
  

• Laravel integration: Use custom rules or macroable form request validation:

  Rule::required()-> Rule::email()->validateUsing(fn($attribute, $value) => (new EmailValidator())->isValid($value, new RFCValidation()))
  

  Or build a reusable Validator class.
• Extensibility: Implement EmailValidation interface for custom rules (e.g., blocklist, disposable-domain filtering, or custom business logic). Example:

  class BlocklistValidation implements EmailValidation {
      public function isValid($email, $extraData = null): bool {
          return !in_array($this->extractDomain($email), $this->blocklist);
      }
  }
  

• Debug warnings: NoRFCWarningsValidation fails on RFC deviations (e.g., comments, obsolete syntax), useful for strict compliance requirements.
• For internationalized domains: Ensure PHP Intl is installed; otherwise DNSCheckValidation and SpoofCheckValidation won’t work.

Gotchas and Tips

• PHP version matters: v4.x requires PHP 8.1+; older versions (v3.x) are EOL. Always match version to your app’s PHP constraint.
• DNS checks are brittle: DNS lookups can fail silently or timeout. Wrap usage in try/catch or use asynchronous validation (e.g., queue-based confirmation) for latency-sensitive apps.
• Spoofing is subtle: SpoofCheckValidation catches visually similar unicode (e.g., Cyrillic а vs Latin a), but it’s only reliable with Intl enabled.
• TLD-only domains: RFC-compliant but rare (e.g., user@localhost). Library flags them as warnings (not errors) unless NoRFCWarningsValidation is used.
• Testing: Use EmailValidator::getWarnings() after validation to debug subtle issues (e.g., deprecated comments, domain formatting quirks).
• Performance: DNSCheckValidation is expensive. Consider caching results or deferring to post-signup email verification (e.g., confirmation link).
• Extensibility: The EmailValidation interface is minimal—implementations receive $extraData (useful for injecting config), but many built-in validators ignore it. Extend carefully.