Derek Allard | 2067d1a | 2008-11-13 22:59:24 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> |
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| 30 | <td><h1>CodeIgniter User Guide Version 1.7</h1></td> |
| 31 | <td id="breadcrumb_right"><a href="../toc.html">Table of Contents Page</a></td> |
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| 42 | <a href="http://codeigniter.com/">CodeIgniter Home</a> › |
| 43 | <a href="../index.html">User Guide Home</a> › |
| 44 | Form Validation |
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| 46 | <td id="searchbox"><form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search"><input type="hidden" name="as_sitesearch" id="as_sitesearch" value="codeigniter.com/user_guide/" />Search User Guide <input type="text" class="input" style="width:200px;" name="q" id="q" size="31" maxlength="255" value="" /> <input type="submit" class="submit" name="sa" value="Go" /></form></td> |
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| 51 | <br clear="all" /> |
| 52 | |
| 53 | |
| 54 | <!-- START CONTENT --> |
| 55 | <div id="content"> |
| 56 | |
| 57 | <h1>Form Validation</h1> |
| 58 | |
| 59 | <p>Before explaining CodeIgniter's approach to data validation, let's describe the ideal scenario:</p> |
| 60 | |
| 61 | <ol> |
| 62 | <li>A form is displayed.</li> |
| 63 | <li>You fill it in and submit it.</li> |
| 64 | <li>If you submitted something invalid, or perhaps missed a required item, the form is redisplayed containing your data along with an error message describing the problem.</li> |
| 65 | <li>This process continues until you have submitted a valid form.</li> |
| 66 | </ol> |
| 67 | |
| 68 | <p>On the receiving end, the script must:</p> |
| 69 | |
| 70 | <ol> |
| 71 | <li>Check for required data.</li> |
| 72 | <li>Verify that the data is of the correct type, and meets the correct criteria. (For example, if a username is submitted |
| 73 | it must be validated to contain only permitted characters. It must be of a minimum length, |
| 74 | and not exceed a maximum length. The username can't be someone else's existing username, or perhaps even a reserved word. Etc.)</li> |
| 75 | <li>Sanitize the data for security.</li> |
| 76 | <li>Pre-format the data if needed (Does the data need to be trimmed? HTML encoded? Etc.)</li> |
| 77 | <li>Prep the data for insertion in the database.</li> |
| 78 | </ol> |
| 79 | |
| 80 | |
| 81 | <p>Although there is nothing complex about the above process, it usually requires a significant |
| 82 | amount of code, and to display error messages, various control structures are usually placed within the form HTML. |
| 83 | Form validation, while simple to create, is generally very messy and tedious to implement.</p> |
| 84 | |
| 85 | <dfn>CodeIgniter provides a comprehensive validation framework that truly minimizes the amount of code you'll write. |
| 86 | It also removes all control structures from your form HTML, permitting it to be clean and free of code.</dfn> |
| 87 | |
| 88 | <h2>Overview</h2> |
| 89 | |
| 90 | <p>In order to implement CodeIgniter's form validation you'll need three things:</p> |
| 91 | |
| 92 | <ol> |
| 93 | <li>A <a href="../general/views.html">View</a> file containing the form.</li> |
| 94 | <li>A View file containing a "success" message to be displayed upon successful submission.</li> |
| 95 | <li>A <a href="../general/controllers.html">controller</a> function to receive and process the submitted data.</li> |
| 96 | </ol> |
| 97 | |
| 98 | <p>Let's create those three things, using a member sign-up form as the example.</p> |
| 99 | |
| 100 | <h2>The Form</h2> |
| 101 | |
| 102 | <p>Using a text editor, create a form called <dfn>myform.php</dfn>. In it, place this code and save it to your <samp>applications/views/</samp> |
| 103 | folder:</p> |
| 104 | |
| 105 | |
| 106 | <textarea class="textarea" style="width:100%" cols="50" rows="30"><html> |
| 107 | <head> |
| 108 | <title>My Form</title> |
| 109 | </head> |
| 110 | <body> |
| 111 | |
| 112 | <?php echo $this->validation->error_string; ?> |
| 113 | |
| 114 | <?php echo form_open('form'); ?> |
| 115 | |
| 116 | <h5>Username</h5> |
| 117 | <input type="text" name="username" value="" size="50" /> |
| 118 | |
| 119 | <h5>Password</h5> |
| 120 | <input type="text" name="password" value="" size="50" /> |
| 121 | |
| 122 | <h5>Password Confirm</h5> |
| 123 | <input type="text" name="passconf" value="" size="50" /> |
| 124 | |
| 125 | <h5>Email Address</h5> |
| 126 | <input type="text" name="email" value="" size="50" /> |
| 127 | |
| 128 | <div><input type="submit" value="Submit" /></div> |
| 129 | |
| 130 | </form> |
| 131 | |
| 132 | </body> |
| 133 | </html> |
| 134 | </textarea> |
| 135 | |
| 136 | |
| 137 | <h2>The Success Page</h2> |
| 138 | |
| 139 | |
| 140 | <p>Using a text editor, create a form called <dfn>formsuccess.php</dfn>. In it, place this code and save it to your <samp>applications/views/</samp> |
| 141 | folder:</p> |
| 142 | |
| 143 | |
| 144 | <textarea class="textarea" style="width:100%" cols="50" rows="14"> |
| 145 | <html> |
| 146 | <head> |
| 147 | <title>My Form</title> |
| 148 | </head> |
| 149 | <body> |
| 150 | |
| 151 | <h3>Your form was successfully submitted!</h3> |
| 152 | |
| 153 | <p><?php echo anchor('form', 'Try it again!'); ?></p> |
| 154 | |
| 155 | </body> |
| 156 | </html> |
| 157 | </textarea> |
| 158 | |
| 159 | |
| 160 | <h2>The Controller</h2> |
| 161 | |
| 162 | <p>Using a text editor, create a controller called <dfn>form.php</dfn>. In it, place this code and save it to your <samp>applications/controllers/</samp> |
| 163 | folder:</p> |
| 164 | |
| 165 | |
| 166 | <textarea class="textarea" style="width:100%" cols="50" rows="21"><?php |
| 167 | |
| 168 | class Form extends Controller { |
| 169 | |
| 170 | function index() |
| 171 | { |
| 172 | $this->load->helper(array('form', 'url')); |
| 173 | |
| 174 | $this->load->library('validation'); |
| 175 | |
| 176 | if ($this->validation->run() == FALSE) |
| 177 | { |
| 178 | $this->load->view('myform'); |
| 179 | } |
| 180 | else |
| 181 | { |
| 182 | $this->load->view('formsuccess'); |
| 183 | } |
| 184 | } |
| 185 | } |
| 186 | ?></textarea> |
| 187 | |
| 188 | |
| 189 | <h2>Try it!</h2> |
| 190 | |
| 191 | <p>To try your form, visit your site using a URL similar to this one:</p> |
| 192 | |
| 193 | <code>example.com/index.php/<var>form</var>/</code> |
| 194 | |
| 195 | <p><strong>If you submit the form you should simply see the form reload. That's because you haven't set up any validation |
| 196 | rules yet, which we'll get to in a moment.</strong></p> |
| 197 | |
| 198 | |
| 199 | <h2>Explanation</h2> |
| 200 | |
| 201 | <p>You'll notice several things about the above pages:</p> |
| 202 | |
| 203 | <p>The <dfn>form</dfn> (myform.php) is a standard web form with a couple exceptions:</p> |
| 204 | |
| 205 | <ol> |
| 206 | <li>It uses a <dfn>form helper</dfn> to create the form opening. |
| 207 | Technically, this isn't necessary. You could create the form using standard HTML. However, the benefit of using the helper |
| 208 | is that it generates the action URL for you, based on the URL in your config file. This makes your application more portable |
| 209 | and flexible in the event your URLs change.</li> |
| 210 | |
| 211 | <li>At the top of the form you'll notice the following variable: |
| 212 | <code><?php echo $this->validation->error_string; ?></code> |
| 213 | |
| 214 | <p>This variable will display any error messages sent back by the validator. If there are no messages it returns nothing.</p> |
| 215 | </li> |
| 216 | </ol> |
| 217 | |
| 218 | <p>The <dfn>controller</dfn> (form.php) has one function: <dfn>index()</dfn>. This function initializes the validation class and |
| 219 | loads the <var>form helper</var> and <var>URL helper</var> used by your view files. It also <samp>runs</samp> |
| 220 | the validation routine. Based on |
| 221 | whether the validation was successful it either presents the form or the success page.</p> |
| 222 | |
| 223 | <p><strong>Since you haven't told the validation class to validate anything yet, it returns "false" (boolean false) by default. The <samp>run()</samp> |
| 224 | function only returns "true" if it has successfully applied your rules without any of them failing.</strong></p> |
| 225 | |
| 226 | |
| 227 | <h2>Setting Validation Rules</h2> |
| 228 | |
| 229 | <p>CodeIgniter lets you set as many validation rules as you need for a given field, cascading them in order, and it even lets you prep and pre-process the field data |
| 230 | at the same time. Let's see it in action, we'll explain it afterwards.</p> |
| 231 | |
| 232 | <p>In your <dfn>controller</dfn> (form.php), add this code just below the validation initialization function:</p> |
| 233 | |
| 234 | <code>$rules['username'] = "required";<br /> |
| 235 | $rules['password'] = "required";<br /> |
| 236 | $rules['passconf'] = "required";<br /> |
| 237 | $rules['email'] = "required";<br /> |
| 238 | <br /> |
| 239 | $this->validation->set_rules($rules);</code> |
| 240 | |
| 241 | <p>Your controller should now look like this:</p> |
| 242 | |
Derek Allard | 4b6d493 | 2008-12-07 17:04:56 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 243 | <textarea class="textarea" style="width:100%" cols="50" rows="28"><?php |
Derek Allard | 2067d1a | 2008-11-13 22:59:24 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 244 | |
| 245 | class Form extends Controller { |
| 246 | |
| 247 | function index() |
| 248 | { |
| 249 | $this->load->helper(array('form', 'url')); |
| 250 | |
| 251 | $this->load->library('validation'); |
| 252 | |
| 253 | $rules['username'] = "required"; |
| 254 | $rules['password'] = "required"; |
| 255 | $rules['passconf'] = "required"; |
| 256 | $rules['email'] = "required"; |
| 257 | |
| 258 | $this->validation->set_rules($rules); |
| 259 | |
| 260 | if ($this->validation->run() == FALSE) |
| 261 | { |
| 262 | $this->load->view('myform'); |
| 263 | } |
| 264 | else |
| 265 | { |
| 266 | $this->load->view('formsuccess'); |
| 267 | } |
| 268 | } |
| 269 | } |
| 270 | ?></textarea> |
| 271 | |
| 272 | <p><dfn>Now submit the form with the fields blank and you should see the error message. |
| 273 | If you submit the form with all the fields populated you'll see your success page.</dfn></p> |
| 274 | |
| 275 | <p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong> The form fields are not yet being re-populated with the data when |
| 276 | there is an error. We'll get to that shortly, once we're through explaining the validation rules.</p> |
| 277 | |
| 278 | |
| 279 | <h2>Changing the Error Delimiters</h2> |
| 280 | |
| 281 | <p>By default, the system adds a paragraph tag (<p>) around each error message shown. You can easily change these delimiters with |
| 282 | this code, placed in your controller:</p> |
| 283 | |
| 284 | <code>$this->validation->set_error_delimiters('<kbd><div class="error"></kbd>', '<kbd></div></kbd>');</code> |
| 285 | |
| 286 | <p>In this example, we've switched to using div tags.</p> |
| 287 | |
| 288 | <h2>Cascading Rules</h2> |
| 289 | |
| 290 | <p>CodeIgniter lets you pipe multiple rules together. Let's try it. Change your rules array like this:</p> |
| 291 | |
| 292 | |
| 293 | <code>$rules['username'] = "required|min_length[5]|max_length[12]";<br /> |
| 294 | $rules['password'] = "required|matches[passconf]";<br /> |
| 295 | $rules['passconf'] = "required";<br /> |
| 296 | $rules['email'] = "required|valid_email";</code> |
| 297 | |
| 298 | <p>The above code requires that:</p> |
| 299 | |
| 300 | <ol> |
| 301 | <li>The username field be no shorter than 5 characters and no longer than 12.</li> |
| 302 | <li>The password field must match the password confirmation field.</li> |
| 303 | <li>The email field must contain a valid email address.</li> |
| 304 | </ol> |
| 305 | |
| 306 | <p>Give it a try!</p> |
| 307 | |
| 308 | <p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong> There are numerous rules available which you can read about in the validation reference.</p> |
| 309 | |
| 310 | |
| 311 | <h2>Prepping Data</h2> |
| 312 | |
| 313 | <p>In addition to the validation functions like the ones we used above, you can also prep your data in various ways. |
| 314 | For example, you can set up rules like this:</p> |
| 315 | |
| 316 | <code>$rules['username'] = "<kbd>trim</kbd>|required|min_length[5]|max_length[12]|<kbd>xss_clean</kbd>";<br /> |
| 317 | $rules['password'] = "<kbd>trim</kbd>|required|matches[passconf]|<kbd>md5</kbd>";<br /> |
| 318 | $rules['passconf'] = "<kbd>trim</kbd>|required";<br /> |
| 319 | $rules['email'] = "<kbd>trim</kbd>|required|valid_email";</code> |
| 320 | |
| 321 | <p>In the above example, we are "trimming" the fields, converting the password to MD5, and running the username through |
| 322 | the "xss_clean" function, which removes malicious data.</p> |
| 323 | |
| 324 | <p class="important"><strong>Any native PHP function that accepts one parameter can be used as a rule, like <dfn>htmlspecialchars</dfn>, |
| 325 | <dfn>trim</dfn>, <dfn>MD5</dfn>, etc.</strong></p> |
| 326 | |
| 327 | <p><strong>Note:</strong> You will generally want to use the prepping functions <strong>after</strong> |
| 328 | the validation rules so if there is an error, the original data will be shown in the form.</p> |
| 329 | |
| 330 | <h2>Callbacks: Your own Validation Functions</h2> |
| 331 | |
| 332 | <p>The validation system supports callbacks to your own validation functions. This permits you to extend the validation class |
| 333 | to meet your needs. For example, if you need to run a database query to see if the user is choosing a unique username, you can |
| 334 | create a callback function that does that. Let's create a simple example.</p> |
| 335 | |
| 336 | <p>In your controller, change the "username" rule to this:</p> |
| 337 | |
| 338 | <code>$rules['username'] = "callback_username_check"; </code> |
| 339 | |
| 340 | <p>Then add a new function called <dfn>username_check</dfn> to your controller. Here's how your controller should look:</p> |
| 341 | |
| 342 | |
Derek Allard | 4b6d493 | 2008-12-07 17:04:56 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 343 | <textarea class="textarea" style="width:100%" cols="50" rows="44"><?php |
Derek Allard | 2067d1a | 2008-11-13 22:59:24 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 344 | |
| 345 | class Form extends Controller { |
| 346 | |
| 347 | function index() |
| 348 | { |
| 349 | $this->load->helper(array('form', 'url')); |
| 350 | |
| 351 | $this->load->library('validation'); |
| 352 | |
| 353 | $rules['username'] = "callback_username_check"; |
| 354 | $rules['password'] = "required"; |
| 355 | $rules['passconf'] = "required"; |
| 356 | $rules['email'] = "required"; |
| 357 | |
| 358 | $this->validation->set_rules($rules); |
| 359 | |
| 360 | if ($this->validation->run() == FALSE) |
| 361 | { |
| 362 | $this->load->view('myform'); |
| 363 | } |
| 364 | else |
| 365 | { |
| 366 | $this->load->view('formsuccess'); |
| 367 | } |
| 368 | } |
| 369 | |
| 370 | function username_check($str) |
| 371 | { |
| 372 | if ($str == 'test') |
| 373 | { |
| 374 | $this->validation->set_message('username_check', 'The %s field can not be the word "test"'); |
| 375 | return FALSE; |
| 376 | } |
| 377 | else |
| 378 | { |
| 379 | return TRUE; |
| 380 | } |
| 381 | } |
| 382 | |
| 383 | } |
| 384 | ?></textarea> |
| 385 | |
| 386 | <p>Reload your form and submit it with the word "test" as the username. You can see that the form field data was passed to your |
| 387 | callback function for you to process.</p> |
| 388 | |
| 389 | <p><strong>To invoke a callback just put the function name in a rule, with "callback_" as the rule prefix.</strong></p> |
| 390 | |
| 391 | <p>The error message was set using the <dfn>$this->validation->set_message</dfn> function. |
| 392 | Just remember that the message key (the first parameter) must match your function name.</p> |
| 393 | |
| 394 | <p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong> You can apply your own custom error messages to any rule, just by setting the |
| 395 | message similarly. For example, to change the message for the "required" rule you will do this:</p> |
| 396 | |
| 397 | <code>$this->validation->set_message('required', 'Your custom message here');</code> |
| 398 | |
| 399 | <h2>Re-populating the form</h2> |
| 400 | |
| 401 | <p>Thus far we have only been dealing with errors. It's time to repopulate the form field with the submitted data. |
| 402 | This is done similarly to your rules. Add the following code to your controller, just below your rules:</p> |
| 403 | |
| 404 | <code>$fields['username'] = 'Username';<br /> |
| 405 | $fields['password'] = 'Password';<br /> |
| 406 | $fields['passconf'] = 'Password Confirmation';<br /> |
| 407 | $fields['email'] = 'Email Address';<br /> |
| 408 | <br /> |
| 409 | $this->validation->set_fields($fields);</code> |
| 410 | |
| 411 | <p>The array keys are the actual names of the form fields, the value represents the full name that you want shown in the |
| 412 | error message.</p> |
| 413 | |
| 414 | <p>The index function of your controller should now look like this:</p> |
| 415 | |
| 416 | |
| 417 | <textarea class="textarea" style="width:100%" cols="50" rows="30">function index() |
| 418 | { |
| 419 | $this->load->helper(array('form', 'url')); |
| 420 | |
| 421 | $this->load->library('validation'); |
| 422 | |
| 423 | $rules['username'] = "required"; |
| 424 | $rules['password'] = "required"; |
| 425 | $rules['passconf'] = "required"; |
| 426 | $rules['email'] = "required"; |
| 427 | |
| 428 | $this->validation->set_rules($rules); |
| 429 | |
| 430 | $fields['username'] = 'Username'; |
| 431 | $fields['password'] = 'Password'; |
| 432 | $fields['passconf'] = 'Password Confirmation'; |
| 433 | $fields['email'] = 'Email Address'; |
| 434 | |
| 435 | $this->validation->set_fields($fields); |
| 436 | |
| 437 | if ($this->validation->run() == FALSE) |
| 438 | { |
| 439 | $this->load->view('myform'); |
| 440 | } |
| 441 | else |
| 442 | { |
| 443 | $this->load->view('formsuccess'); |
| 444 | } |
| 445 | }</textarea> |
| 446 | |
| 447 | |
| 448 | <p>Now open your <dfn>myform.php</dfn> view file and update the value in each field so that it has an attribute corresponding to its name:</p> |
| 449 | |
| 450 | |
| 451 | <textarea class="textarea" style="width:100%" cols="50" rows="30"> |
| 452 | <html> |
| 453 | <head> |
| 454 | <title>My Form</title> |
| 455 | </head> |
| 456 | <body> |
| 457 | |
| 458 | <?php echo $this->validation->error_string; ?> |
| 459 | |
| 460 | <?php echo form_open('form'); ?> |
| 461 | |
| 462 | <h5>Username</h5> |
| 463 | <input type="text" name="username" value="<?php echo $this->validation->username;?>" size="50" /> |
| 464 | |
| 465 | <h5>Password</h5> |
| 466 | <input type="text" name="password" value="<?php echo $this->validation->password;?>" size="50" /> |
| 467 | |
| 468 | <h5>Password Confirm</h5> |
| 469 | <input type="text" name="passconf" value="<?php echo $this->validation->passconf;?>" size="50" /> |
| 470 | |
| 471 | <h5>Email Address</h5> |
| 472 | <input type="text" name="email" value="<?php echo $this->validation->email;?>" size="50" /> |
| 473 | |
| 474 | <div><input type="submit" value="Submit" /></div> |
| 475 | |
| 476 | </form> |
| 477 | |
| 478 | </body> |
| 479 | </html> |
| 480 | </textarea> |
| 481 | |
| 482 | |
| 483 | <p>Now reload your page and submit the form so that it triggers an error. Your form fields should be populated |
| 484 | and the error messages will contain a more relevant field name.</p> |
| 485 | |
| 486 | |
| 487 | |
| 488 | <h2>Showing Errors Individually</h2> |
| 489 | |
| 490 | <p>If you prefer to show an error message next to each form field, rather than as a list, you can change your form so that it looks like this:</p> |
| 491 | |
| 492 | |
| 493 | <textarea class="textarea" style="width:100%" cols="50" rows="20"> |
| 494 | <h5>Username</h5> |
| 495 | <?php echo $this->validation->username_error; ?> |
| 496 | <input type="text" name="username" value="<?php echo $this->validation->username;?>" size="50" /> |
| 497 | |
| 498 | <h5>Password</h5> |
| 499 | <?php echo $this->validation->password_error; ?> |
| 500 | <input type="text" name="password" value="<?php echo $this->validation->password;?>" size="50" /> |
| 501 | |
| 502 | <h5>Password Confirm</h5> |
| 503 | <?php echo $this->validation->passconf_error; ?> |
| 504 | <input type="text" name="passconf" value="<?php echo $this->validation->passconf;?>" size="50" /> |
| 505 | |
| 506 | <h5>Email Address</h5> |
| 507 | <?php echo $this->validation->email_error; ?> |
| 508 | <input type="text" name="email" value="<?php echo $this->validation->email;?>" size="50" /></textarea> |
| 509 | |
| 510 | <p>If there are no errors, nothing will be shown. If there is an error, the message will appear, wrapped in the delimiters you |
| 511 | have set (<p> tags by default).</p> |
| 512 | |
| 513 | <p class="important"><strong>Note: </strong>To display errors this way you must remember to set your fields using the <kbd>$this->validation->set_fields</kbd> |
| 514 | function described earlier. The errors will be turned into variables that have "_error" after your field name. |
| 515 | For example, your "username" error will be available at:<br /><dfn>$this->validation->username_error</dfn>.</p> |
| 516 | |
| 517 | |
| 518 | <h2>Rule Reference</h2> |
| 519 | |
| 520 | <p>The following is a list of all the native rules that are available to use:</p> |
| 521 | |
| 522 | |
| 523 | |
| 524 | <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" border="0" style="width:100%" class="tableborder"> |
| 525 | <tr> |
| 526 | <th>Rule</th> |
| 527 | <th>Parameter</th> |
| 528 | <th>Description</th> |
| 529 | <th>Example</th> |
| 530 | </tr><tr> |
| 531 | |
| 532 | <td class="td"><strong>required</strong></td> |
| 533 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 534 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element is empty.</td> |
| 535 | <td class="td"> </td> |
| 536 | </tr><tr> |
| 537 | |
| 538 | <td class="td"><strong>matches</strong></td> |
| 539 | <td class="td">Yes</td> |
| 540 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element does not match the one in the parameter.</td> |
| 541 | <td class="td">matches[form_item]</td> |
| 542 | </tr><tr> |
| 543 | |
| 544 | <td class="td"><strong>min_length</strong></td> |
| 545 | <td class="td">Yes</td> |
| 546 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element is shorter then the parameter value.</td> |
| 547 | <td class="td">min_length[6]</td> |
| 548 | </tr><tr> |
| 549 | |
| 550 | <td class="td"><strong>max_length</strong></td> |
| 551 | <td class="td">Yes</td> |
| 552 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element is longer then the parameter value.</td> |
| 553 | <td class="td">max_length[12]</td> |
| 554 | </tr><tr> |
| 555 | |
| 556 | <td class="td"><strong>exact_length</strong></td> |
| 557 | <td class="td">Yes</td> |
| 558 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element is not exactly the parameter value.</td> |
| 559 | <td class="td">exact_length[8]</td> |
| 560 | </tr><tr> |
| 561 | |
| 562 | <td class="td"><strong>alpha</strong></td> |
| 563 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 564 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alphabetical characters.</td> |
| 565 | <td class="td"> </td> |
| 566 | </tr><tr> |
| 567 | |
| 568 | <td class="td"><strong>alpha_numeric</strong></td> |
| 569 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 570 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alpha-numeric characters.</td> |
| 571 | <td class="td"> </td> |
| 572 | </tr><tr> |
| 573 | |
| 574 | <td class="td"><strong>alpha_dash</strong></td> |
| 575 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 576 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alpha-numeric characters, underscores or dashes.</td> |
| 577 | <td class="td"> </td> |
| 578 | </tr> |
| 579 | <tr> |
| 580 | <td class="td"><strong>numeric</strong></td> |
| 581 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 582 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than numeric characters.</td> |
| 583 | <td class="td"> </td> |
| 584 | </tr> |
| 585 | <tr> |
| 586 | |
| 587 | <td class="td"><strong>integer</strong></td> |
| 588 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 589 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than an integer.</td> |
| 590 | <td class="td"> </td> |
| 591 | </tr><tr> |
| 592 | |
| 593 | <td class="td"><strong>valid_email</strong></td> |
| 594 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 595 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element does not contain a valid email address.</td> |
| 596 | <td class="td"> </td> |
| 597 | </tr> |
| 598 | <tr> |
| 599 | <td class="td"><strong>valid_emails</strong></td> |
| 600 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 601 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if any value provided in a comma separated list is not a valid email.</td> |
| 602 | <td class="td"> </td> |
| 603 | </tr> |
| 604 | <tr> |
| 605 | <td class="td"><strong>valid_ip</strong></td> |
| 606 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 607 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the supplied IP is not valid.</td> |
| 608 | <td class="td"> </td> |
| 609 | </tr> |
| 610 | <tr> |
| 611 | <td class="td"><strong>valid_base64</strong></td> |
| 612 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 613 | <td class="td">Returns FALSE if the supplied string contains anything other than valid Base64 characters.</td> |
| 614 | <td class="td"> </td> |
| 615 | </tr> |
| 616 | </table> |
| 617 | |
| 618 | <p><strong>Note:</strong> These rules can also be called as discrete functions. For example:</p> |
| 619 | |
| 620 | <code>$this->validation->required($string);</code> |
| 621 | |
| 622 | <p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong> You can also use any native PHP functions that permit one parameter.</p> |
| 623 | |
| 624 | |
| 625 | |
| 626 | <h2>Prepping Reference</h2> |
| 627 | |
| 628 | <p>The following is a list of all the prepping functions that are available to use:</p> |
| 629 | |
| 630 | |
| 631 | |
| 632 | <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" border="0" style="width:100%" class="tableborder"> |
| 633 | <tr> |
| 634 | <th>Name</th> |
| 635 | <th>Parameter</th> |
| 636 | <th>Description</th> |
| 637 | </tr><tr> |
| 638 | |
| 639 | <td class="td"><strong>xss_clean</strong></td> |
| 640 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 641 | <td class="td">Runs the data through the XSS filtering function, described in the <a href="input.html">Input Class</a> page.</td> |
| 642 | </tr><tr> |
| 643 | |
| 644 | <td class="td"><strong>prep_for_form</strong></td> |
| 645 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 646 | <td class="td">Converts special characters so that HTML data can be shown in a form field without breaking it.</td> |
| 647 | </tr><tr> |
| 648 | |
| 649 | <td class="td"><strong>prep_url</strong></td> |
| 650 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 651 | <td class="td">Adds "http://" to URLs if missing.</td> |
| 652 | </tr><tr> |
| 653 | |
| 654 | <td class="td"><strong>strip_image_tags</strong></td> |
| 655 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 656 | <td class="td">Strips the HTML from image tags leaving the raw URL.</td> |
| 657 | </tr><tr> |
| 658 | |
| 659 | <td class="td"><strong>encode_php_tags</strong></td> |
| 660 | <td class="td">No</td> |
| 661 | <td class="td">Converts PHP tags to entities.</td> |
| 662 | </tr> |
| 663 | |
| 664 | </table> |
| 665 | |
| 666 | <p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong> You can also use any native PHP functions that permit one parameter, |
| 667 | like <kbd>trim</kbd>, <kbd>htmlspecialchars</kbd>, <kbd>urldecode</kbd>, etc.</p> |
| 668 | |
| 669 | |
| 670 | <h2>Setting Custom Error Messages</h2> |
| 671 | |
| 672 | <p>All of the native error messages are located in the following language file: <dfn>language/english/validation_lang.php</dfn></p> |
| 673 | |
| 674 | <p>To set your own custom message you can either edit that file, or use the following function:</p> |
| 675 | |
| 676 | <code>$this->validation->set_message('<var>rule</var>', '<var>Error Message</var>');</code> |
| 677 | |
| 678 | <p>Where <var>rule</var> corresponds to the name of a particular rule, and <var>Error Message</var> is the text you would like displayed.</p> |
| 679 | |
| 680 | |
| 681 | <h2>Dealing with Select Menus, Radio Buttons, and Checkboxes</h2> |
| 682 | |
| 683 | <p>If you use select menus, radio buttons or checkboxes, you will want the state of |
| 684 | these items to be retained in the event of an error. The Validation class has three functions that help you do this:</p> |
| 685 | |
| 686 | <h2>set_select()</h2> |
| 687 | |
| 688 | <p>Permits you to display the menu item that was selected. The first parameter |
| 689 | must contain the name of the select menu, the second parameter must contain the value of |
| 690 | each item. Example:</p> |
| 691 | |
| 692 | <code> |
| 693 | <select name="myselect"><br /> |
| 694 | <option value="one" <dfn><?php echo $this->validation->set_select('myselect', 'one'); ?></dfn> >One</option><br /> |
| 695 | <option value="two" <dfn><?php echo $this->validation->set_select('myselect', 'two'); ?></dfn> >Two</option><br /> |
| 696 | <option value="three" <dfn><?php echo $this->validation->set_select('myselect', 'three'); ?></dfn> >Three</option><br /> |
| 697 | </select> |
| 698 | </code> |
| 699 | |
| 700 | |
| 701 | <h2>set_checkbox()</h2> |
| 702 | |
| 703 | <p>Permits you to display a checkbox in the state it was submitted. The first parameter |
| 704 | must contain the name of the checkbox, the second parameter must contain its value. Example:</p> |
| 705 | |
| 706 | <code><input type="checkbox" name="mycheck" value="1" <dfn><?php echo $this->validation->set_checkbox('mycheck', '1'); ?></dfn> /></code> |
| 707 | |
| 708 | |
| 709 | <h2>set_radio()</h2> |
| 710 | |
| 711 | <p>Permits you to display radio buttons in the state they were submitted. The first parameter |
| 712 | must contain the name of the radio button, the second parameter must contain its value. Example:</p> |
| 713 | |
| 714 | <code><input type="radio" name="myradio" value="1" <dfn><?php echo $this->validation->set_radio('myradio', '1'); ?></dfn> /></code> |
| 715 | |
| 716 | |
| 717 | |
| 718 | |
| 719 | |
| 720 | </div> |
| 721 | <!-- END CONTENT --> |
| 722 | |
| 723 | |
| 724 | <div id="footer"> |
| 725 | <p> |
| 726 | Previous Topic: <a href="user_agent.html">User Agent Class</a> |
| 727 | · |
| 728 | <a href="#top">Top of Page</a> · |
| 729 | <a href="../index.html">User Guide Home</a> · |
| 730 | Next Topic: <a href="xmlrpc.html">XML-RPC Class</a> |
| 731 | </p> |
| 732 | <p><a href="http://codeigniter.com">CodeIgniter</a> · Copyright © 2006-2008 · <a href="http://ellislab.com/">Ellislab, Inc.</a></p> |
| 733 | </div> |
| 734 | |
| 735 | </body> |
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