Question

I am verifying the email in database in form validation in CodeIgniter by using callback in rule. For example

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

The email_exists function is:

public function email_exists($email)
    {
        $this -> load -> model('account_model');
        $exists = $this -> account_model -> email_registered( $email );
        if ( $exists == true )
        {
            $this -> form_validation -> set_message ( 'email_exists', 'Email already exists.');
            return false;
        }
        return true;        
    }

It works fine. However, shouldn’t the above email_exists function be a private function instead of public?
I try to make it private like private function _email_exists($email) and i call back it by callback__email_exists

However I get the error:

Fatal error: Call to private method Account::_email_exists() from context 'CI_Form_validation' in ....(line number)

Can someone tell me what’s wrong?

Answer 1

If you need to call it from outside the object (whether as callback or directly) it should be public