Codeigniter - anonymous validation rule, independent of any field

Question

I'd like to create a validation rule independent of any form field. Is it possible in Codeigniter? As far as I could see in the documentation, the set_rules method wants a form field name as first parameter.

Even so, I tried

$this->form_validation->set_rules('products_count', 'products_count', 'callback_products_count_check');

and this is the callback check

function products_count_check()
    {
    $user = $this->user_model->get(array(
        'id' => $this->session->userdata('user_id')
    ));

    if ( ! empty($user))
    {
      $kit = $this->kit_model->get(array('id' => $user->kit_id));
      if ( ! empty($kit)) {
        $products_count = $this->product_model->get(array('user_id' => $user->id, 'count' => TRUE));

        if ($products_count >= $kit->max_products) {
          $this->form_validation->set_message('products_count_check', lang('products.max_products_reached'));
          return FALSE;
        }
      }
        }

    return TRUE;
    }

The function returns false, but the error message isn't shown.

Any ideas?

Thank you.

jondavidjohn jondavidjohn · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-17T13:26:29

I don't think you're wanting to use form validation at all actually...

This sounds like a job for FLASHDATA!

check out the session class, I would use flash data in this situation for a few reasons

You're not validating a form field, which is what the form_validation class was intended for.
Flashdata messages are intended for this purpose

so to do this, in your controller...

$this->session->set_flashdata('error','Put your error message here');

then in the view, create a generic error handler

<?php if ($this->session->flashdata('error')): ?>
    <p class="error"><?php echo $this->session->flashdata('error') ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>

Codeigniter - anonymous validation rule, independent of any field

2 Answers