Question

I am working on a project based on Zend framework. In user registration I have to check for unique email. My code is working fine when I register a user for the first time, but when I try to update the user information and press the update button, it gives the error message:

Email already taken 

Please help me to solve this problem. My code is attached below:

$this->addElement('text', 'email', array(
                'label'      => 'Your email address:',
                'required'   => true,
                'filters'    => array('StringTrim'),
                'validators' => array(
                        'EmailAddress',
                        array('Db_NoRecordExists', true, array(
                                'table' => 'users',
                                'field' => 'email',
                                'messages' => array(
                                        'recordFound' => 'Email already taken'
                                )
                        )
                        )
                )
        ));

I have changed my controller to this:

public function addAction()
    {
        $modelUsers = new Model_Users();
        $userId = $this->_getParam('userId');
        $form = $this->_getAddForm();

        if ($userId) {              
            $populateData = array();

            $user = $modelUsers->fetch($userId);

            if ($user instanceof Model_User) {
                $populateData = $user->toArray();
            }

            $form->populate($populateData);
        }

        $request = $this->getRequest();

        if ($request->isPost()) {
            $email = $this->getRequest()->getParam('email');
            if (strtolower(trim($email)) == $modelUsers->fetchByEmail($email)) {
                // change $this->_user->getAccount()->getEmail() to retrieve the user's current email address

                // remove validator from form
                $form->getElement('email')->removeValidator('Db_NoRecordExists');
            }

            $post = $request->getPost();

            if ($form->isValid($post)) {
                $values = $form->getValidValues($post);
                $data = array(
                    'firstName'     => $values['firstName'],
                    'userTypeId'    => 2,
                    'lastName'      => $values['lastName'],
                    'email'         => $values['email'],
                    'userName'      => $values['userName'],
                    'password'      => $values['password'],
                    'role'          => $values['role']
                );

                if ($userId) {
                    $user = $modelUsers->fetch($userId);
                    if ($user instanceof Model_User) {
                        $user->setFromArray($data);
                        $success = $user->save();
                        if ($success) {
                            echo Zend_Json::encode(array('status' => self::STATUS_SUCCESS, 'message' => 'Successfully updated the user!'));
                            exit;
                        }
                    }
                } else {
                    $user = $modelUsers->createRow($data);
                    $success = $user->save();
                    if ($success) {
                        echo Zend_Json::encode(array('status' => self::STATUS_SUCCESS, 'message' => 'Successfully added the user!'));
                        exit;
                    }

                }
                echo Zend_Json::encode(array('status' => self::STATUS_FAILED, 'message' => 'user not added'));
                exit;               
            } else {

                $errors = array();
                $errors = $form->errors();              

                echo Zend_Json::encode(array('status' => self::STATUS_ERROR, 'data' => $errors));
                exit;

            }
        }

        $this->view->form = $form;
        $this->_helper->layout->disableLayout();

    }

Model:

public function fetchByEmail($email)
{
    $email=fetchOne('SELECT email FROM users WHERE email = $email');
    //$select->where('email=?',$email) ;
    //$student = $this->fetchRow($select);
    return $email;
}

But still this is not working

Answer 1

One simple way you can solve this problem is to remove the validator from that form element when the form is being edited. You may also want to keep the validator if they are attempting to change their email address since they shouldn’t be able to change their email to one that already exists in the database.

Leave the validator in your Zend_Form class, add this code only when a user is being edited.

if ($this->getRequest->isPost()) {
    $email = $this->getRequest()->getParam('email'); // get email from form

    // if email address has not changed, remove validator from form
    if (strtolower(trim($email)) == $this->_user->getAccount()->getEmail()) {
       // change $this->_user->getAccount()->getEmail() to retrieve the user's current email address

       // remove validator from form
       $form->getElement('email')->removeValidator('Db_NoRecordExists');
    }

    // validate form
    if ($form->isValid($this->getRequest()->getPost()) {
        //...
    }
}

So what you are doing is removing the Db_NoRecordExists validator from the form element when the form is being edited, and only if they are not attempting to change their email address if they are allowed to do so.