

![Hero Image](/images/joi-data-transformation/hero.png)

The Node.js community has access to many data validation libraries like [Ajv](https://www.npmjs.com/package/ajv), [Yup](https://www.npmjs.com/package/yup), [class-validator](https://www.npmjs.com/package/class-validator), [validate.js](https://www.npmjs.com/package/validate.js), and more. One library that stands out to me is [Joi](https://www.npmjs.com/package/joi).

Joi is popular, battle tested, and very powerful, but it's often mistaken to be "just" a data validation library even though it can also transform data. This ability is really useful when building REST APIs, as I'll demonstrate using a combination of Nest.js and Joi.

Consider the following Nest.js `Pipe` that validates an incoming request body using a Joi schema:

```ts
import { Schema } from "joi";
import { PipeTransform, BadRequestException } from "@nestjs/common";

class SchemaValidator implements PipeTransform {
  constructor(readonly schema: Schema) {}

  transform(incoming: unknown): unknown {
    const { error } = this.schema.validate(incoming);
    if (error) {
      throw new BadRequestException(error.message);
    }

    return incoming;
  }
}

// Convenient way to apply the SchemaValidator
function useSchema(schema: Schema): SchemaValidator {
  return new SchemaValidator(schema);
}
```

It runs the incoming value through the given schema to validate it. It then returns a "400 Bad Request" response if the validation is unsuccessful, or returns the value as-is otherwise. You can apply it as any other pipe:

```ts
@Controller()
class UserController {
  @Get("/:email/picture")
  getProfilePicture(
    @Param("email", useSchema(Joi.string().email().required()))
    email: string
  ): string {
    // ...
  }
}
```

A common practice when working with emails is to lowercase them before usage. The simplest way to do this would be to call `email.toLowerCase()` in the controller method, but you could also leverage Joi's capabilities for this.

First, apply the `lowercase` transformation to the schema:

```ts
const emailSchema = Joi.string().email().lowercase().required()

@Get("/:email/picture")
getProfilePicture(
  @Param("email", withSchema(emailSchema)) email: string
) {
  // ...
}
```

Then adjust the `transform` method of `SchemaValidator` pipe to return Joi's validated value instead of the original value:

```ts
transform(incoming: unknown): unknown {
  const { error, value } = this.schema.validate(incoming);
	if (error) {
		throw new BadRequestException(error.message);
	}

  return value;
}
```

This ensures that the value returned from this pipe will be lowercase as long as the `convert` option is enabled (it's enabled by default). You can use any of the other available transformations like `default()`, `sort()`, `binary()` when needed, and you could also apply custom transformations using your own functions.

It's a best practice to normalize emails before usage. `foo@gmail.com` and `foo+bar@gmail.com` are the same email addresses from Gmail's perspective. Similarly, `foobar@gmail.com` and `foo.bar@gmail.com` point to the same email. It's therefore important to normalize email variants before use through a package like [normalize-email](https://www.npmjs.com/package/normalize-email).

First, write a custom validator for your email schema that uses the `normalize-email` package:

```ts
import { CustomHelpers, ErrorReport } from "joi";
import normalize from "normalize-email";

function normalizeEmail(
  value: string | undefined,
  helpers: CustomHelpers
): string | ErrorReport {
  try {
    const normalized = normalize(value);
    return normalized;
  } catch (error) {
    return helpers.message({ custom: "Failed to normalize email" });
  }
}
```

Then modify your controller to use it:

```ts
const emailSchema = Joi.string()
  .email()
  .lowercase()
  .required()
  .custom(normalizeEmail)

@Get("/:email/picture")
getProfilePicture(
  @Param("email", withSchema(emailSchema)) email: string
) {
  // ...
}
```

And now you will always received normalized emails!

---

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# Joi