Question

I have this search function :

public static function search_form()
{
    $form = new Form('search_form');

    $form->field('keyword', 'text', array
    (
        'min_length'    =>  4,
        'max_length'    =>  15,
        'alphanumeric'  =>  lang('alphanumeric')
    )); 
    $form->field('category', 'select', array
    (
        'cat1'  =>  'Category 1',
        'cat2'  =>  'Category 2',
        'cat3'  =>  'Category 3'

    ), $value);

    if($data = $form->validate())
    {           
        header('Location: '.WEB.sprintf('search/'.$data['keyword'].'/'.$data['category']));
    }

    return $form;
}

And the optional validation, that works fine with inputs, but not with dropdowns :

// Validate
public function validate()
{
    $this->script();

    if(!$this->submitted)
    {
        return false;
    }

    $this->valid = true;

    foreach($this->fields as $field)
    {
        $value = $this->request[$field[0]];

        if(isset($field[2]['optional']) && $field[2]['optional'])
        {
            if($value == '') continue;
        }

        foreach($field[2] as $validator=>$data)
        {
            if($validator == 'optional') continue;

            $custom = !method_exists($this, $validator);

            if((!$custom && !$this->$validator($value, $data)) || ($custom && !$this->custom($data, $value)))
            {
                $this->valid = false;

                $this->errors[$field[0]] = $this->error_message($field[0], $validator, $data);

                break;
            }
        }
    }

    return $this->valid?$this->request:false;
}

When I add the optional parameter in an text input, it works, but not in the select input :

    $form->field('category', 'select', array
    (
        'optional'      =>  true,
  .................

It is transformed as an value in HTML
Here is the select case :

        # Input
        switch($field[1])
        {
            case 'text':
            case 'password':
                if($this->submitted)
                {
                    echo '<input id="'.$this->id.'_'.$field[0].'" class="text" type="'.$field[1].'" name="'.$field[0].'" value="'.htmlentities(utf8_decode($this->request[$field[0]]), ENT_QUOTES).'"/>';
                } else
                {
                    echo '<input id="'.$this->id.'_'.$field[0].'" class="text" type="'.$field[1].'" name="'.$field[0].'"'.(isset($field[3])?' value="'.$field[3].'"':'').'/>';
                }
                break;
            case 'textarea':
                echo '<textarea type="text" id="'.$this->id.'_'.$field[0].'" name="'.$field[0].'">';
                echo '</textarea>';
                break;
            case 'select':
                echo '<select id="'.$this->id.'_'.$field[0].'" name="'.$field[0].'">';

                foreach($field[2] as $key=>$value)
                {
                    echo '<option value="'.$key.'"';

                    if($this->submitted && $this->request[$field[0]] == $key)
                    {
                        echo ' selected="selected"';
                    } elseif(isset($field[3]) && $field[3] == $key)
                    {
                        echo ' selected="selected"';
                    }

                    echo '>'.$value.'</option>';
                }

                echo '</select>';
                break;
        }

The problem is that I need the validator for the first input (keyword) but not for the dropdown, and it seems that I have to validate both fields, which I don’t want. Is there a way to bypass the second validation ?

Edit : Actually, I don’t know why the dropdown doesn’t pass the validation, I just get the “error_category” when trying to submit the form.

Problem solved :

The validating function was actually trying to validate the second field ($field[2]) and looking for the [‘optional’] value, but couldn’t find it, as my second field was in fact the categories array.
To solve the problem, I just added a new array in second position, containing the “optional = true” and moved my actual array in third position.
The validation was then okay, but the option values didn’t showed up so I just had to change :

   foreach($field[2] as $key=>$value)
            {
                echo '<option value="'.$key.'"'; ...

and replace $field[2] by $field[3]
Then just move the value field (previously $field[3]) to $field[4]

Answer 1

Problem solved :

The validating function was actually trying to validate the second field ($field[2]) and looking for the [‘optional‘] value, but couldn’t find it, as my second field was in fact the categories array. To solve the problem, I just added a new array in second position, containing the “optional = true” and moved my actual array in third position.

The validation was then okay, but the option values didn’t showed up so I just had to change :

   foreach($field[2] as $key=>$value)
        {
            echo '<option value="'.$key.'"'; ...

and replace $field[2] by $field[3] Then just move the value field (previously $field[3]) to $field[4]