Question

Is there a creative and easy way to check many form fields at once.

I have a form with generated fields on the fly, each has a unique id.

The thing is submitting all the fields are not required, but at least one field must be filled before submitting.

Is there a way to do this in Codeigniter, or how would I go about validating this effectively.

I understand that it is possible to check each field individually, but I’m seeking for a much cleaner way.

I hope it’s clear for you guys. Thanks.

Answer 1

Right now, I have a custom function which will batch check every submission on my form to make sure it meets a set of rules. I am thinking that it may work to set up my form as an html array (data[]), retrieve it in code igniter, then use the CI callback_ validation function to make sure everything turns out okay. It seems complex, so I haven’t yet entirely wrapped my head around it, but maybe this can get your wheels turning in the right direction.

EDIT:

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

// If there is any posted data, then we should assign it to our $post_data array.

$post_data = $this->input->post('project_data');
if (empty($post_data)) {die('empty form');}

// Now, we are ready to validate the incoming data.
// We will send the data through a callback function which will check to make sure it is valid.
// If it is not valid, the callback function will trigger a codeigniter validation error.

// Let's temporarily remove any commas from the submission data to avoid delimiter confusion when sending it through the callback

$post_data = str_replace(",", "DELIMITEDCOMMA", $post_data);

$post_data_str = http_build_query($post_data);
$this->form_validation->set_rules("project_data[errors]", 'Errors', "required|callback__validate_project_data[$post_data_str]");

$this->form_validation->run();

Then, just write your custom validation function based on what it is that you need to validate.

function _validate_project_data($value, $request)
{
    // A callback rule check is being attempted by the CI validator 
    // $value is the actual value of the submission, while $request is the key and value

    $request = explode(",", $request);
    $request = str_replace("DELIMITEDCOMMA", ",", $request);

    // rename the keys in the request back to the original convention

    parse_str($request[0], $request); 
    //var_dump($request);

    // perform validation here and return true or false (valid or invalid)      

}