CI 2.2 Form Validation not working as expected

SRG,

I apologize bout the previous post, I didn't read it carefully.

Now I got you somehow, you are using array for input

Code:

<form action="<?php echo base_url('test/index'); ?>" method="post">
   <p>
       <label>Name</label>
       <input type="text" name="opt[]" value="<?php echo set_value('opt['.(0).']'); ?>" />
   </p>
   <p>
       <label>Email</label>
       <input type="text" name="opt[]" value="<?php echo set_value('opt['.(1).']'); ?>" />
   </p>
   <p>
       <label>Phone</label>
       <input type="text" name="opt[]" />
   </p>
   <p>
       <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
       <a href="<?php echo base_url('test/index'); ?>">reset</a>
   </p>
</form>
<?php echo validation_errors(); ?>

I have searched from the internet, also from the user_guide of codeigniter. I found out that we can set validation rules on input arrays by using their indexes or the whole input name array.

I coded this on my local and had it running.

PHP Code:

public function index() 
{
    $this->load->library('form_validation');
    
    // I hard coded the index number for each option. (e.g. opt[0] for Name and opt[1] for email
    // Enclose it with parenthesis "()" to obtain the integer value
    $config = array(
        array('field' => 'opt['.(0).']', 'label' => 'Name', 'rules' => 'trim|required|max_length[50]'),
        array('field' => 'opt['.(1).']', 'label' => 'Email', 'rules' => 'trim|valid_email')
    );
    
    // setting rules
    $this->form_validation->set_rules($config);
 
    // intended for debugging
    $this->prePrintR($config);
   
    if($_POST) {
        $input = $this->input->post();
        $this->prePrintR($input);
    }
    
    // checking if form is valid else, load the view and show validation_errors in test/index
    if($this->form_validation->run()) {
        echo 'form is valid';
    } 

    $this->load->view('test/index');
}

// Customized debugger to print_r variables
private function prePrintR($expression) 
{
    echo '<pre>';
    echo print_r($expression);
    echo '</pre>';
} 


In this part, I enclosed the index value of each opt with parenthesis "()" to obtain the integer value. The value of index depends on the arrangement of inputs on view page. 

Code:

$config = array(
   array('field' => 'opt['.(0).']', 'label' => 'Name', 'rules' => 'trim|required|max_length[50]'),
   array('field' => 'opt['.(1).']', 'label' => 'Email', 'rules' => 'trim|valid_email')
);

If we write it merely like below,

Code:

$config = array(
   array('field' => 'opt[0]', 'label' => 'Name', 'rules' => 'trim|required|max_length[50]'),
   array('field' => 'opt[1]', 'label' => 'Email', 'rules' => 'trim|valid_email')
);

then PHP by default considers them as strings not with index. I suppose these cause the errors. 
Additionally, based on what I just learned, we do not need to check if input is not null before setting validation rules, we can just set a validation rule directly without required in rules. This validates the specific field if it is not null.

You can see the attachment what I got in my testing. By the way, I did not include the phone validation for this is just for testing. 
           

I hope this time this can help. Thank you.

- joseph.dicdican 

Joseph K. Dicdican
Softshore Global Solutions Inc. | Junior Web Developer Intern
Passerelles numériques Philippines | Scholar
[email protected]