Codeigniter form validation error message on custom function

Question

I made a custom function for my form validation in Codeigniter. Its hooked to the URL Helper, i achieved this by making a MY_url_helper.

The helper modification:

function valid_url($str) {
   $pattern = "/^(http|https):\/\/([A-Z0-9][A-Z0-9_-]*(?:\.[A-Z0-9][A-Z0-9_-]*)+):?(\d+)?\/?/i";
   if (preg_match($pattern, $str)) return TRUE;
   else return FALSE;
}

/* End of file MY_url_helper.php */
/* Location: ./application/helpers/MY_url_helper.php */

How i call the validation:

$this->form_validation->set_rules('image', 'Image path', 'valid_url');

The language file:

$lang['valid_url']  = "The %s field must contain a valid URL.";

/* End of file form_validation_lang.php */
/* Location: ./system/language/english/form_validation_lang.php */

But it doesn't show any error message when submitting the form. If i change the valid_url function to echo something on true and false, it will execute that. So it runs the function.

How can i make the error message appear?

kevindeleon kevindeleon · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-23T21:24:04

Are you printing validation errors to your view? Add this line above your form in your view and see if it prints then.

<?php echo validation_errors(); ?>

Edit:

A few things based on your reply...I've never actually used a "helper" function as a callback for validation...I've always defined the callback in the controller where the validation occurs. Someone else may be able to elaborate on whether you can use a helper function as a callback. You may have to declare your validation function in the controller. You could also return the helper function from a callback you declare in the controller as well to keep from having to re-write your helper in two places. That may work.

I assume you are loading the 'url' helper in your controller?

Also..per CodeIgniter's documentation...I believe you are supposed to append 'callback_' to the beginning of your function name in your 'set_rules' declaration.

$this->form_validation->set_rules('image', 'Image path', 'callback_valid_url');

http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/libraries/form_validation.html#callbacks

Codeigniter form validation error message on custom function

1 Answers