Question

Firstly, I’m not asking how to perform a multi-file upload using CodeIgniter, but rather how to prevent any/all files from being uploaded if the last one in line fails (due to filetype, size, etc.). Basically I’m looking to use CI’s file validation up front (before anything is uploaded), and if everything looks good, perform all uploads.

I have a form that uploads two files. If the first file passes validation and the do_upload() method returns TRUE, but the second file fails, the first file was still uploaded — how can I prevent this?

Here’s my code:

// Controller

function upload_files()
{

    // Configure first file upload  
    $config['upload_path']          = 'public/mp3/';
    $config['overwrite']            = FALSE;
    $config['allowed_types']        = 'mp3';
    $config['max_size']             = '20000';
    $config['remove_spaces']        = TRUE;

    $this->upload->initialize($config);

    // Perform first file upload
    if ($this->upload->do_upload('mp3'))
    {
        // Store upload file info for later use
        $mp3_info = $this->upload->data();

        // Configure second file upload
        $config['upload_path']          = 'public/doc/';
        $config['overwrite']            = FALSE;
        $config['allowed_types']        = 'doc|docx';
        $config['max_size']             = '3000';
        $config['remove_spaces']        = TRUE;
        $this->upload->initialize($config);

        // Perform second file upload
        // Even if this fails, the first file was still uploaded
        if ($this->upload->do_upload('doc'))
        {
            // Store upload file info for later use
            $doc_info = $this->upload->data();

            // Perform database interactions here
        }
        else
        {
            echo $this->upload->display_errors();
        }
    }
    else
    {
        echo $this->upload->display_errors();
    }
}

Answer 1

No dice! You can’t validate an upload from php or codeigniter unless you execute the upload. How can php validate something it doesn’t yet have access to?

You have to do some validation up-front with javascript. If all files pass the js validation, then upload the files and complete validation with php/codeigniter.