Codeigniter form validation, custom check doesn't work if the field is not required

Question

Gah.. I have spent way to long on this, but I believe I have found the problem.

Essentially I have a hidden field which is populated when a user clicks on an image.

It is required that the user has clicked the image but I do not want the generic form error message for a 'required' check with the CI form validation class.

As such I quickly made a image_required function in my extended form validation class, and set a rule such that this rule was applied to the hidden field.

function image_required($str)
    {

    $CI =& get_instance();

    $CI->form_validation->set_message('image_required','Please click the image above.');

    if($str != '')
    {
        return TRUE;
    }
    else
    {
        return FALSE;
        } 
}

If the hidden field was blank no error was being called.

I am led to believe now that this is because CI says this field is empty yet it is not 'required', therefore we will ignore all the other validation rules for the field. Is this correct?

If so how can i go about requiring this field be set but having a custom error message?

bangs head

Thanks

is this a library or a helper?, how do you call in in your validation set rules? — tomexsans

Stevo Stevo · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-27T13:48:47

If you look at the source code (v2.1.3) for the '_execute' routine (system/libraries/Form_validation.php) you will see on line 486

     // If the field is blank, but NOT required, no further tests are necessary

So you are correct, it needs to be required and then it will process your rule.

In order to fix it so you can have a non-required blank field that still processes rules, you should override the '_execute' method by creating a file called 'MY_Form_validation.php' in the application/libraries folder (I think, you might need to check exactly how you extend an existing library) and then copy the '_execute' method and alter the code to continue on a non-required but blank entry.

Codeigniter form validation, custom check doesn't work if the field is not required

2 Answers