Added a common validation method to base API class

[snake14]

Description:

There are multiple plugins that need the same validation method. Rather than duplicate code, we'd like to add it to the parent class.

Review

• Functional review done
• Potential edge cases thought about (behavior of the code with strange input, with strange internal state or possible interactions with other Matomo subsystems)
• Usability review done (is anything maybe unclear or think about anything that would cause people to reach out to support)
• Security review done
• Wording review done
• Code review done
• Tests were added if useful/possible
• Reviewed for breaking changes
• Developer changelog updated if needed
• Documentation added if needed
• Existing documentation updated if needed

[michalkleiner]

I'm not sure this is the best way how to do it, but also don't have a suggestion how to do it differently. The method probably doesn't need to be here if we have a different place where we provide similar config validations (and this doesn't even check config), so perhaps this could be somewhere else and reused from there?
Also, most likely this doesn't need to be public, can be just protected if it's just used from extending classes.

I'd wait for @sgiehl's suggestion how to do this differently.

[snake14]

@michalkleiner Fair enough. I debated about putting it in a validator class, but that seemed focused on configs and settings when this isn't necessarily. I nearly had it protected, but made it public for easy unit testing. I can change it if that's preferable.

[sgiehl]

This whole method could also be achieved with one line:

(new \Piwik\Validators\NumberRange(0, $maxMinutes))->validate($lastMinutes);

But I personally would put that validation into each API method. It makes sense to put more complex stuff into reusable methods, but if it's only one line like above, I can't see much value in it.

[snake14]

Nice! I got so focused on following what was done in CrashAnalytics that I forgot to check if an existing validator would work. I'll use that. Thank you.