passbolt/passbolt_api · error · ValidationException

Could not validate directory entry data.

Error message

Could not validate directory entry data.

What it means

ValidationException thrown by DirectoryEntriesTable::create() when the freshly built DirectoryEntry entity (buildEntityFromData) already carries validation errors before saving. The directory entry (LDAP record mirror) failed the table's validation rules, e.g. invalid foreign model, missing directory_name, or oversized/truncated DN fields.

Solutions

  1. Inspect the ValidationException's entity errors ($e->getEntity()->getErrors()) to see which fields failed
  2. Verify the LDAP attributes mapped to directory_name and foreign_model produce valid values
  3. Ensure the sync report maps entries to the correct foreign model ('User' or 'Group')
  4. Check for DB schema drift (run migrations) that could make rules mismatch stored data

Example fix

// before: missing directory_name
$entriesTable->create(['foreign_model' => 'User']);
// after: required fields provided
$entriesTable->create(['foreign_model' => 'User', 'directory_name' => 'cn=jdoe,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com', 'directory_id' => $dirId]);
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// validate entry data before create
foreach (['directory_name', 'foreign_model', 'directory_id'] as $f) {
    if (empty($data[$f])) {
        throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Missing required field: $f");
    }
}

Type guard

$entity = $entriesTable->buildEntityFromData($data);
if (!empty($entity->getErrors())) {
    var_export($entity->getErrors()); // fix fields before calling create()
    return;
}

Try / catch

try {
    $entriesTable->create($data);
} catch (ValidationException $e) {
    $this->log(json_encode($e->getEntity()->getErrors()), 'error');
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: updateOrCreate() -> create() invoked during sync with LDAP data that violates DirectoryEntry rules: empty directory_name, invalid 'foreign_model' value, id/fingerprint format issues.

Common situations: LDAP DNs containing characters that break normalization; sync of entries whose foreign model mapping (User/Group) is misconfigured; DN truncation to DN_MAX_LENGTH producing data that still fails other rules.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of passbolt/passbolt_api@31c1bbc10f (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/94a769029d1006af. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/PassboltEe/DirectorySync/src/Model/Table/DirectoryEntriesTable.php:226

        }

        $directoryEntry = $this->buildEntity($data);

        return $directoryEntry;
    }

    /**
     * Create a new directory entry.
     *
     * @param array $data data
     * @return \Passbolt\DirectorySync\Model\Entity\DirectoryEntry|bool
     */
    public function create(array $data): bool|DirectoryEntry
    {
        // Check validation rules.
        $directoryEntry = $this->buildEntityFromData($data);
        if (!empty($directoryEntry ->getErrors())) {
            throw new ValidationException(__('Could not validate directory entry data.'), $directoryEntry, $this);
        }

        $de = $this->save($directoryEntry);

        // Check for validation errors. (associated models too).
        if (!empty($directoryEntry->getErrors())) {
            throw new ValidationException(__('Could not validate directory entry data.'), $directoryEntry, $this);
        }

        // Check for errors while saving.
        if (!$de) {
            throw new InternalErrorException('Could not save the directory entry.');
        }

        return $de;
    }

    /**

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