Form Validation

CodeIgniter provides a comprehensive form validation and data prepping class that helps minimize the amount of code you'll write.

Note: As of CodeIgniter 1.6.4, this Form Validation class supercedes the old Validation class, which is now deprecated. We have left the old class in the library so applications currently using it will not break, but you are encouraged to migrate to this new version.

Overview
Form Validation Tutorial
Rule Reference
Prepping Reference
Function Reference
Helper Reference

Overview

Before explaining CodeIgniter's approach to data validation, let's describe the ideal scenario:

A form is displayed.
You fill it in and submit it.
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.
This process continues until you have submitted a valid form.

On the receiving end, the script must:

Check for required data.
Verify that the data is of the correct type, and meets the correct criteria. For example, if a username is submitted it must be validated to contain only permitted characters. It must be of a minimum length, and not exceed a maximum length. The username can't be someone else's existing username, or perhaps even a reserved word. Etc.
Sanitize the data for security.
Pre-format the data if needed (Does the data need to be trimmed? HTML encoded? Etc.)
Prep the data for insertion in the database.

Although there is nothing terribly complex about the above process, it usually requires a significant amount of code, and to display error messages, various control structures are usually placed within the form HTML. Form validation, while simple to create, is generally very messy and tedious to implement.

Form Validation Tutorial

What follows is a "hands on" tutorial for implementing CodeIgniters Form Validation.

In order to implement form validation you'll need three things:

A View file containing a form.
A View file containing a "success" message to be displayed upon successful submission.
A controller function to receive and process the submitted data.

Let's create those three things, using a member sign-up form as the example.

The Form

Using a text editor, create a form called myform.php. In it, place this code and save it to your applications/views/ folder:

The Success Page

Using a text editor, create a form called formsuccess.php. In it, place this code and save it to your applications/views/ folder:

The Controller

Using a text editor, create a controller called form.php. In it, place this code and save it to your applications/controllers/ folder:

Try it!

To try your form, visit your site using a URL similar to this one:

example.com/index.php/form/

If you submit the form you should simply see the form reload. That's because you haven't set up any validation rules yet.

Since you haven't told the Form Validation class to validate anything yet, it returns FALSE (boolean false) by default. The run() function only returns TRUE if it has successfully applied your rules without any of them failing.

Explanation

You'll notice several things about the above pages:

The form (myform.php) is a standard web form with a couple exceptions:

It uses a form helper to create the form opening. Technically, this isn't necessary. You could create the form using standard HTML. However, the benefit of using the helper is that it generates the action URL for you, based on the URL in your config file. This makes your application more portable in the event your URLs change.
At the top of the form you'll notice the following function call: <?php echo validation_errors(); ?>
This function will return any error messages sent back by the validator. If there are no messages it returns an empty string.

The controller (form.php) has one function: index(). This function initializes the validation class and loads the form helper and URL helper used by your view files. It also runs the validation routine. Based on whether the validation was successful it either presents the form or the success page.

Setting Validation Rules

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 at the same time. To set validation rules you will use the set_rules() function:

$this->form_validation->set_rules();

The above function takes three parameters as input:

The field name - the exact name you've given the form field.
A "human" name for this field, which will be inserted into the error message. For example, if your field is named "user" you might give it a human name of "Username". Note: If you would like the field name to be stored in a language file, please see Translating Field Names.
The validation rules for this form field.

Here is an example. In your controller (form.php), add this code just below the validation initialization function:


$this->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'Username', 'required');

$this->form_validation->set_rules('password', 'Password', 'required');

$this->form_validation->set_rules('passconf', 'Password Confirmation', 'required');

$this->form_validation->set_rules('email', 'Email', 'required');

Your controller should now look like this:

Now submit the form with the fields blank and you should see the error messages. If you submit the form with all the fields populated you'll see your success page.

Note: The form fields are not yet being re-populated with the data when there is an error. We'll get to that shortly.

Setting Rules Using an Array

Before moving on it should be noted that the rule setting function can be passed an array if you prefer to set all your rules in one action. If you use this approach you must name your array keys as indicated:


$config = array(

               array(

                     'field'   => 'username', 

                     'label'   => 'Username', 

                     'rules'   => 'required'

                  ),

               array(

                     'field'   => 'password', 

                     'label'   => 'Password', 

                     'rules'   => 'required'

                  ),

               array(

                     'field'   => 'passconf', 

                     'label'   => 'Password Confirmation', 

                     'rules'   => 'required'

                  ),   

               array(

                     'field'   => 'email', 

                     'label'   => 'Email', 

                     'rules'   => 'required'

                  )

            );



$this->form_validation->set_rules($config);

Cascading Rules

CodeIgniter lets you pipe multiple rules together. Let's try it. Change your rules in the third parameter of rule setting function, like this:


$this->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'Username', 'required|min_length[5]|max_length[12]');

$this->form_validation->set_rules('password', 'Password', 'required|matches[passconf]');

$this->form_validation->set_rules('passconf', 'Password Confirmation', 'required');

$this->form_validation->set_rules('email', 'Email', 'required|valid_email');

The above code sets the following rules:

The username field be no shorter than 5 characters and no longer than 12.
The password field must match the password confirmation field.
The email field must contain a valid email address.

Give it a try! Submit your form without the proper data and you'll see new error messages that correspond to your new rules. There are numerous rules available which you can read about in the validation reference.

Prepping Data

In addition to the validation functions like the ones we used above, you can also prep your data in various ways. For example, you can set up rules like this:


$this->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'Username', 'trim|required|min_length[5]|max_length[12]|xss_clean');

$this->form_validation->set_rules('password', 'Password', 'trim|required|matches[passconf]|md5');

$this->form_validation->set_rules('passconf', 'Password Confirmation', 'trim|required');

$this->form_validation->set_rules('email', 'Email', 'trim|required|valid_email');

In the above example, we are "trimming" the fields, converting the password to MD5, and running the username through the "xss_clean" function, which removes malicious data.

Any native PHP function that accepts one parameter can be used as a rule, like htmlspecialchars, trim, MD5, etc.

Note: You will generally want to use the prepping functions after the validation rules so if there is an error, the original data will be shown in the form.

Re-populating the form

Thus far we have only been dealing with errors. It's time to repopulate the form field with the submitted data. CodeIgniter offers several helper functions that permit you to do this. The one you will use most commonly is:

set_value('field name')

Open your myform.php view file and update the value in each field using the set_value() function:

Don't forget to include each. field name in the set_value() functions!

Now reload your page and submit the form so that it triggers an error. Your form fields should now be re-populated

Note: The Function Reference section below contains functions that permit you to re-populate <select> menus, radio buttons, and checkboxes.

Important Note: If you use an array as the name of a form field, you must supply it as an array to the function. Example:

<input type="text" name="colors[]" value="<?php echo set_value('colors[]'); ?>" size="50" />

For more info please see the Using Arrays as Field Names section below.

Callbacks: Your own Validation Functions

The validation system supports callbacks to your own validation functions. This permits you to extend the validation class 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 create a callback function that does that. Let's create a example of this.

In your controller, change the "username" rule to this:

$this->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'Username', 'callback_username_check');

Then add a new function called username_check to your controller. Here's how your controller should now look:

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 callback function for you to process.

To invoke a callback just put the function name in a rule, with "callback_" as the rule prefix.

You can also process the form data that is passed to your callback and return it. If your callback returns anything other then a boolean TRUE/FALSE it is assumed that the data is your newly processed form data.

Setting Error Messages

All of the native error messages are located in the following language file: language/english/form_validation_lang.php

To set your own custom message you can either edit that file, or use the following function:

$this->form_validation->set_message('rule', 'Error Message');

Where rule corresponds to the name of a particular rule, and Error Message is the text you would like displayed.

If you include %s in your error string, it will be replaced with the "human" name you used for your field when you set your rules.

In the "callback" example above, the error message was set by passing the name of the function:

$this->form_validation->set_message('username_check')

You can also override any error message found in the languge file. For example, to change the message for the "required" rule you will do this:

$this->form_validation->set_message('required', 'Your custom message here');

Translating Field Names

If you would like to store the "human" name you passed to the set_rules() function in a language file, and therefore make the name able to be translated, here's how:

First, prefix your "human" name with lang:, as in this example:


$this->form_validation->set_rules('first_name', 'lang:first_name', 'required');

Then, store the name in one of your language file arrays (without the prefix):

$lang['first_name'] = 'First Name';

Note: If you store your array item in a language file that is not loaded automatically by CI, you'll need to remember to load it in your controller using:

$this->lang->load('file_name');

See the Language Class page for more info regarding language files.

Changing the Error Delimiters

By default, the Form Validation class adds a paragraph tag (<p>) around each error message shown. You can either change these delimiters globally or individually.

Changing delimiters Globally
To globally change the error delimiters, in your controller function, just after loading the Form Validation class, add this:
$this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters('<div class="error">', '</div>');
In this example, we've switched to using div tags.
Changing delimiters Individually
Each of the two error generating functions shown in this tutorial can be supplied their own delimiters as follows:
<?php echo form_error('field name', '<div class="error">', '</div>'); ?>
Or:
<?php echo validation_errors('<div class="error">', '</div>'); ?>

Showing Errors Individually

If you prefer to show an error message next to each form field, rather than as a list, you can use the form_error() function.

Try it! Change your form so that it looks like this:

If there are no errors, nothing will be shown. If there is an error, the message will appear.

Important Note: If you use an array as the name of a form field, you must supply it as an array to the function. Example:

<?php echo form_error('options[size]'); ?>

<input type="text" name="options[size]" value="<?php echo set_value("options[size]"); ?>" size="50" />

For more info please see the Using Arrays as Field Names section below.

Saving Sets of Validation Rules to a Config File

A nice feature of the Form Validation class is that it permits you to store all your validation rules for your entire application in a config file. You can organize these rules into "groups". These groups can either be loaded automatically when a matching controller/function is called, or you can manually call each set as needed.

How to save your rules

To store your validation rules, simply create a file named form_validation.php in your application/config/ folder. In that file you will place an array named $config with your rules. As shown earlier, the validation array will have this prototype:


$config = array(

               array(

                     'field'   => 'username', 

                     'label'   => 'Username', 

                     'rules'   => 'required'

                  ),

               array(

                     'field'   => 'password', 

                     'label'   => 'Password', 

                     'rules'   => 'required'

                  ),

               array(

                     'field'   => 'passconf', 

                     'label'   => 'Password Confirmation', 

                     'rules'   => 'required'

                  ),   

               array(

                     'field'   => 'email', 

                     'label'   => 'Email', 

                     'rules'   => 'required'

                  )

            );

Your validation rule file will be loaded automatically and used when you call the run() function.

Please note that you MUST name your array $config.

Creating Sets of Rules

In order to organize your rules into "sets" requires that you place them into "sub arrays". Consider the following example, showing two sets of rules. We've arbitrarily called these two rules "signup" and "email". You can name your rules anything you want:

$config = array(

                 'signup' = array(

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'username',

                                            'label' => 'Username',

                                            'rules' => 'required'

                                         ),

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'password',

                                            'label' => 'Password',

                                            'rules' => 'required'

                                         ),

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'passconf',

                                            'label' => 'PasswordConfirmation',

                                            'rules' => 'required'

                                         ),

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'email',

                                            'label' => 'Email',

                                            'rules' => 'required'

                                         )

                                    ),

                 'email' = array(

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'emailaddress',

                                            'label' => 'EmailAddress',

                                            'rules' => 'required|valid_email'

                                         ),

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'name',

                                            'label' => 'Name',

                                            'rules' => 'required|alpha'

                                         ),

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'title',

                                            'label' => 'Title',

                                            'rules' => 'required'

                                         ),

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'message',

                                            'label' => 'MessageBody',

                                            'rules' => 'required'

                                         )

                                    )                          

               );

Calling a Specific Rule Group

In order to call a specific group you will pass its name to the run() function. For example, to call the signup rule you will do this:


if ($this->form_validation->run('signup') == FALSE)

{

   $this->load->view('myform');

}

else

{

   $this->load->view('formsuccess');

}

Associating a Controller Function with a Rule Group

An alternate (and more automatic) method of calling a rule group is to name it according to the controller class/function you intend to use it with. For example, let's say you have a controller named Member and a function named signup. Here's what your class might look like:


<?php


class Member extends Controller {



   function signup()

   {      

      $this->load->library('form_validation');

            

      if ($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE)

      {

         $this->load->view('myform');

      }

      else

      {

         $this->load->view('formsuccess');

      }

   }

}

?>

In your validation config file, you will name your rule group member/signup:

$config = array(

           'member/signup' = array(

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'username',

                                            'label' => 'Username',

                                            'rules' => 'required'

                                         ),

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'password',

                                            'label' => 'Password',

                                            'rules' => 'required'

                                         ),

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'passconf',

                                            'label' => 'PasswordConfirmation',

                                            'rules' => 'required'

                                         ),

                                    array(

                                            'field' => 'email',

                                            'label' => 'Email',

                                            'rules' => 'required'

                                         )

                                    )

               );

When a rule group is named identically to a controller class/function it will be used automatically when the run() function is invoked from that class/function.

Using Arrays as Field Names

The Form Validation class supports the use of arrays as field names. Consider this example:

<input type="text" name="options[]" value="" size="50" />

If you do use an array as a field name, you must use the EXACT array name in the Helper Functions that require the field name, and as your Validation Rule field name.

For example, to set a rule for the above field you would use:

$this->form_validation->set_rules('options[]', 'Options', 'required');

Or, to show an error for the above field you would use:

<?php echo form_error('options[]'); ?>

Or to re-populate the field you would use:

<input type="text" name="options[]" value="<?php echo set_value('options[]'); ?>" size="50" />

You can use multidimensional arrays as field names as well. For example:

<input type="text" name="options[size]" value="" size="50" />

Or even:

<input type="text" name="sports[nba][basketball]" value="" size="50" />

As with our first example, you must use the exact array name in the helper functions:

<?php echo form_error('sports[nba][basketball]'); ?>

If you are using checkboxes (or other fields) that have multiple options, don't forget to leave an empty bracket after each option, so that all selections will be added to the POST array:


<input type="checkbox" name="options[]" value="red" />

<input type="checkbox" name="options[]" value="blue" />

<input type="checkbox" name="options[]" value="green" />

Or if you use a multidimensional array:


<input type="checkbox" name="options[color][]" value="red" />

<input type="checkbox" name="options[color][]" value="blue" />

<input type="checkbox" name="options[color][]" value="green" />

When you use a helper function you'll include the bracket as well:

<?php echo form_error('options[color][]'); ?>

Rule Reference

The following is a list of all the native rules that are available to use:

Rule	Parameter	Description	Example
required	No	Returns FALSE if the form element is empty.
matches	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element does not match the one in the parameter.	matches[form_item]
min_length	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is shorter then the parameter value.	min_length[6]
max_length	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is longer then the parameter value.	max_length[12]
exact_length	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is not exactly the parameter value.	exact_length[8]
alpha	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alphabetical characters.
alpha_numeric	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alpha-numeric characters.
alpha_dash	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alpha-numeric characters, underscores or dashes.
numeric	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than numeric characters.
integer	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than an integer.
is_natural	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than a natural number: 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.
is_natural_no_zero	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than a natural number, but not zero: 1, 2, 3, etc.
valid_email	No	Returns FALSE if the form element does not contain a valid email address.
valid_emails	No	Returns FALSE if any value provided in a comma separated list is not a valid email.
valid_ip	No	Returns FALSE if the supplied IP is not valid.
valid_base64	No	Returns FALSE if the supplied string contains anything other than valid Base64 characters.

Note: These rules can also be called as discrete functions. For example:

$this->form_validation->required($string);

Note: You can also use any native PHP functions that permit one parameter.

Prepping Reference

The following is a list of all the prepping functions that are available to use:

Name	Parameter	Description
xss_clean	No	Runs the data through the XSS filtering function, described in the Input Class page.
prep_for_form	No	Converts special characters so that HTML data can be shown in a form field without breaking it.
prep_url	No	Adds "http://" to URLs if missing.
strip_image_tags	No	Strips the HTML from image tags leaving the raw URL.
encode_php_tags	No	Converts PHP tags to entities.

Note: You can also use any native PHP functions that permit one parameter, like trim, htmlspecialchars, urldecode, etc.

Function Reference

The following functions are intended for use in your controller functions.

$this->form_validation->set_rule();

Permits you to set validation rules, as described in the tutorial sections above:

Setting Validation Rules
Saving Groups of Validation Rules to a Config File

$this->form_validation->run();

Runs the validation routines. Returns boolean TRUE on success and FALSE on failure. You can optionally pass the name of the validation group via the function, as described in: Saving Groups of Validation Rules to a Config File.

$this->form_validation->set_message();

Permits you to set custom error messages. See Setting Error Messages above.

Helper Reference

The following helper functions are available for use in the view files containing your forms. Note that these are procedural functions, so they do not require you to prepend them with $this->form_validation.

form_error()

Shows an individual error message associated with the field name supplied to the function. Example:

<?php echo form_error('username'); ?>

The error delimiters can be optionally specified. See the Changing the Error Delimiters section above.

validation_errors()

Shows all error messages as a string: Example:

<?php echo validation_errors(); ?>

The error delimiters can be optionally specified. See the Changing the Error Delimiters section above.

set_value()

Permits you to set the value of an input form or textarea. You must supply the field name via the first parameter of the function. The second (optional) parameter allows you to set a default value for the form. Example:

<input type="text" name="quantity" value="<?php echo set_value('quantity', '0'); ?>" size="50" />

The above form will show "0" when loaded for the firs time.

set_select()

If you use a <select> menu, this function permits you to display the menu item that was selected. The first parameter must contain the name of the select menu, the second parameter must contain the value of each item, and the third (optional) parameter lets you set an item as the default (use boolean TRUE/FALSE).

Example:


<select name="myselect">

<option value="one" <?php echo  set_select('myselect', 'one', TRUE); ?> >One</option>

<option value="two" <?php echo  set_select('myselect', 'two'); ?> >Two</option>

<option value="three" <?php echo  set_select('myselect', 'three'); ?> >Three</option>

</select>

set_checkbox()

Permits you to display a checkbox in the state it was submitted. The first parameter must contain the name of the checkbox, the second parameter must contain its value, and the third (optional) parameter lets you set an item as the default (use boolean TRUE/FALSE). Example:

<input type="checkbox" name="mycheck[]" value="1" <?php echo set_checkbox('mycheck[]', '1'); ?> />

<input type="checkbox" name="mycheck[]" value="2" <?php echo set_checkbox('mycheck[]', '2'); ?> />

set_radio()

Permits you to display radio buttons in the state they were submitted. This function is identical to the set_checkbox() function above.

<input type="radio" name="myradio" value="1" <?php echo  set_radio('myradio', '1', TRUE); ?> />

<input type="radio" name="myradio" value="2" <?php echo  set_radio('myradio', '2'); ?> />

CodeIgniter User Guide Version 1.7

Form Validation

Overview

Form Validation Tutorial

The Form

The Success Page

The Controller

Try it!

Explanation

Setting Validation Rules

Setting Rules Using an Array

Cascading Rules

Prepping Data

Re-populating the form

Callbacks: Your own Validation Functions

Setting Error Messages

Translating Field Names

Changing the Error Delimiters

Showing Errors Individually

Saving Sets of Validation Rules to a Config File

How to save your rules

Creating Sets of Rules

Calling a Specific Rule Group

Associating a Controller Function with a Rule Group

Using Arrays as Field Names

Rule Reference

Prepping Reference

Function Reference

$this->form_validation->set_rule();

$this->form_validation->run();

$this->form_validation->set_message();

Helper Reference

form_error()

validation_errors()

set_value()

set_select()

set_checkbox()

set_radio()