Override Default Error Messages?

I'm currently having issues with users uploading invalid images on one of my sites, despite explaining the requirements on the page. Unfortunately I can't see any way to override the hardcoded error strings returned by getErrorMessage() in my custom Exception handler. The Exception thrown doesn't include the error code, just the message text itself:

public function validate()
    {
        if (!$this->isValid()) {
            throw new FileException($this->getErrorMessage());
        }
    }

The message itself isn't very user-friendly, and I don't see any obvious way to change the text to something more appropriate to my end-users:

"The file "this-is-not-an-image.pdf" exceeds the upload limit defined in your form."

I also can't seem to access the UploadedFile instance from the Exception, which means I can't access the error/filename/filesize etc directly to customize the error message.

I'm using Laravel 4.2, but I believe this question is more directly related to stapler itself than laravel-stapler.

My current workaround is to wrap the save() call in a try/catch in the controller, then I can access the Eloquent model and the associated data to display more helpful error messages.

try {
  // Try saving the User, returns false on failure or throws Exception if photo upload fails
  $success = $user->save();
}
catch (Exception $e) {
  // Dangerously catch all exceptions, append message to validation errors list
  switch(get_class($e)) {
    case "Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\File\Exception\AccessDeniedException":
      // AccessDeniedExceptions occur when a user uploads an invalid image
      $user->validationErrors->add('photo',"Please upload a valid Image (JPEG, PNG, GIF). You may need to resave your file before uploading it.");
      break;
    default:
      // This could include standard Stapler FileExceptions, such as files too large etc
      // NOTE: This code arrogantly assumes that any Exceptions will be directly related to the photo field, which may not be the case
      // Here we can stristr() the $e->getMessage() and replace the text with something nicer
      $user->validationErrors->add('photo',$e->getMessage()); // Add error message to validator array
      break;
  }
  $success = false; // Saving failed
}

if($success) {
  // Success
  $msgtype = 'success';
  $msg     = 'User Photo has been Uploaded';
  return Redirect::to("user/photo")->with($msgtype, $msg);
}
else {
  // Failed
  $msg     = 'User Photo could not be Uploaded';
  $msgtype = 'error';
  $errors  = $user->errors();

  return Redirect::to("user/photo")->withErrors($errors)->withInput()->with($msgtype, $msg);
}

Anyway, I've worked around this now in my own ugly way, but it's still something that I think needs to be considered for a future version.

CodeSleeve / stapler

Override Default Error Messages? #132