Codeigniter Form Validation pass value instead field name

Question

I'm using Codeigniter and I have a dynamically created form with lots of input fields. I'm using jQuery and AJAX to submit form and I'm passing all the data from form as an object. This is my jQuery code:

$('body').on("submit", "#app-options-form", function(evnt){
    // Show loader while AJAX is loading
    $('.response-container').html('<img class="response-loader" src="<?php echo base_url();?>/img/loader.gif" >');

    // Prevent form submission
    evnt.preventDefault();

    // Get all form inputs
    var inputs = $('#app-options-form :input[type="text"]');

    // Put them in object as name=>value
    var data = {};

    for(i=0; i<inputs.length; i++) {
        data[inputs[i]["name"]] = inputs[i]["value"];
    }

    // Generate POST request
    $.post("<?php echo site_url("admin/ajax_app_options"); ?>",
    {"edit_form_submited" : true, "data" : data},
    function (data) {
        $('.response-container').html(data.result);
    }, "json");
});

I'm having difficulties with validation of that form. If I put a field name as a parameter for set_rules(), it won't work because it will look for $_POST['field_name'] but this doesn't exist. The value of this field is passed as $_POST['data']['field_name'], because I'm passing all inputs as an object called "data".

So, is there any way to validate this form?

EDIT:

My PHP code:

// Get received data, here are all the input fields as $field_name=>$field_value
$data = $this->input->post('data');

// Try no. 1 for setting the rules
foreach($data as $key=>$value)
{
    $this->form_validation->set_rules($key, 'Vrijednost', 'trim|xss_clean|max_length[5]');
}

// Try no. 2 for setting the rules
foreach($data as $key=>$value)
{
    $this->form_validation->set_rules($value, 'Vrijednost', 'trim|xss_clean|max_length[5]');
}

// Try no. 3 for setting the rules
foreach($data as $key=>$value)
{
    $this->form_validation->set_rules($this->input->post('data')['$key'], 'Vrijednost', 'trim|xss_clean|max_length[5]');
}

These are my tries to set the rules, but none of them works

I don't know if your problem is from javascript side, but anyway try sending the entire form instead of doing foreach on your own like this var data = $('#app-options-form').serialize(); — ahmad
Thank you for answer. I understand what you're trying to say but this is not an option. I have to send all those informations in an object or array. Names of input fields are dynamically generated so that's why I need to have them in an array. Once I receive this data in PHP, I don't know which input fields I have so I have to loop through this array with foreach. — XploD

Rwd Rwd · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-08T12:40:16

I have not tested this but it should work!

$("body").on("submit", "#app-options-form", function() {

    // Prevent form submission
    evnt.preventDefault();

    // Show loader while AJAX is loading
    $('.response-container').html('<img class="response-loader" src="<?php echo base_url();?>/img/loader.gif" >');

    var form = $(this).serializeArray();
    var data =  {data: form};

    $.post("<?php echo site_url('admin/ajax_app_options'); ?>", data, function(response) {
        $('.response-container').html(response.result);
    }, "json");
});

When you send a serialized string using $.post it come through as an array at the other end :)

Hope this helps!

After you edit

remove var data = {data: form}; from the above

Then with php do:

foreach ($this->input->post() as $key => $value) {
    $this->form_validation->set_rules($key, 'Vrijednost', 'trim|xss_clean|max_length[5]');
}

The reason you code wouldn't work is because Form_validation will be looking for the key in the $_POST array but it would need to look inside $_POST['data'].

The other option (which would be quite pointless, but follows using the data array) would be:

$data = $this->input->post('data');

foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
    $this->form_validation->set_rules("data[$key]", 'Vrijednost', 'trim|xss_clean|max_length[5]');
}

I can't say this will definitely work though.

Codeigniter Form Validation pass value instead field name

1 Answers