Codeigniter Form Validation - how to unset form values after success?

Question

I realise this request goes against the example provided in the CI documentation (which advises a separate 'success' page view), but I would like to reutilise a given form view after a form has been successfully submitted - displaying a success message then displaying a blank form. I've tried a few ways unsuccessfully to clear the validation set values (unsetting $_POST, setting rules / fields to an empty array and rerunning validation).

I could redirect to the same page, but then I'd have to set a session variable to display a success message - which is a messy approach.

Any ideas how to best achieve the above?

Answer 1

Redirect to itself. This way, no submissions have been run... This also gives you a way to show the flash_data.

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

    $this->form_validation->set_rules('firstname', 'First Name', 'required');
    $this->form_validation->set_rules('surname', 'Sur Name', 'required');

    if ($this->form_validation->run() === TRUE)
    {
                    // save data

        $this->session->set_flashdata('message', 'New Contact has been added');
        redirect(current_url());
    }

    $this->load->view('contacts/add', $this->data);

Answer 2

Another solution, extend the library CI_Form_validation. The property $_field_data is protected, so we can acces it:

class MY_Form_validation extends CI_Form_validation {

    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
    }

    public function clear_field_data() {

        $this->_field_data = array();
        return $this;
    }
}

And call the new method. This way, you can pass data without storing data in session.

    class Item extends Controller
    {
        function Item()
        {
            parent::Controller();
        }

        function add()
        {
            $this->load->library('form_validation');
            $this->form_validation->set_rules('name', 'name', 'required');

            $success = false;

            if ($this->form_validation->run())
            {
                $success = true;
                $this->form_validation->clear_field_data();
            }

            $this->load->view('item/add', array('success' => $success));
        }
    }

Answer 3

Pass a TRUE/FALSE variable to your views that conditionally sets the values of the form.

The Controller

if($this->form_validation->run())
{
    $data['reset'] = TRUE;
}
else
{
    $data['reset'] = FALSE:
}

$this->load->view("form", $data);

The View:

<input type="text" name="email" value="<?php echo ($reset) ? "" : set_value('email'); ?>" />

<input type="text" name="first_name" value="<?php echo ($reset) ? "" : set_value('first_name'); ?>" />

Answer 4

The set_value function fetches its value from the Form_validation object and not from the $_POST array. The Form_validation object stores its own copy of the posted values in a variable called $_field_data.

Its a hack, but you could clear this variable after handling a successful submission :

class Item extends Controller
{
    function Item()
    {
        parent::Controller();
        $this->load->model('item_model');
    }

    function add()
    {
        $this->load->library('form_validation');
        $this->form_validation->set_rules('name', 'name', 'required');

        $success = false;

        if ($this->form_validation->run())
        {
            $this->item_model->add_item($this->input->post('name'));
            $success = true;

            // Look away now. Hack coming up!
            // Clear the form validation field data
            $this->form_validation->_field_data = array();
        }

        $this->load->view('item/add', array('success' => $success));
    }
}

Answer 5

Hope this would be helpful. Finally I understand the whole concept of the extending the library. All you need to do is
Step 1: In this directory "application/libraries/" create a file named "MY_Form_validation.php" with the following php code

<?php if (!defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed.');
class MY_Form_validation extends CI_Form_validation {

 public function MY_Form_validation() {
    parent::__construct();
  }

  public function unset_field_data()
    {    
        unset($this->_field_data);    
    }
}

Step 2: Then use the function "unset_field_data()" in you controller. for example below:

    if ($this->form_validation->run())
    {
        $this->item_model->add_item($this->input->post('name'));
        $success = true;

        $this->form_validation->unset_field_data();
    }

Answer 6

I've found that where:

1. there's more than one CI view-partials which make up the page and their controller methods perform validation
2. one of the validations failed and produced an error since the last page-refresh, say with an incorrectly formatted or typed input field value

it isn't enough to clear only the validation-rules array, you need to clear the validation-error array too.

To this end, I've added a method to system/libraries/Form_Validation.php, as follows:

public function clear_rules()
{
    $this->_error_array = array();
    $this->_field_data = array();
    return $this;
}

Returning $this is important if you want to chain your form-validation methods.

Answer 7

In newer version 3.X, to clear set_value , $_POST=array() and $this->_field_data = array(); in MY_Form_validation.php library. try

Clear form data after success codeigniter using php not jquery

Answer 8

The answer from d5avard is wrong, the CI form validation should have the rules array parsed to it: If you don't do this you can use form validation with posted data, but not with over-ride data.

save this file as Libraries/MY_Form_validation.php

    /**
     * Class MY_Form_validation
     * @description extension of the CI_Form_validation
     * @property CI_DB_query_builder db database driver
     * @property CI_Benchmark benchmark
     * @property CI_Input input
     * @property CI_Output output
     */
    class MY_Form_validation extends CI_Form_validation
    {
        /**
         * MY_Form_validation constructor.
         * @param array $rules
         */
        function __construct($rules = array())
        {
            parent::__construct($rules);
            $this->_error_prefix        = '<div class=""><p>';
            $this->_error_suffix        = '</p></div>';
        }

        /**
         * Resets the form validation class for multiple runs.
         * @param array $rules
         */
        public function initialise($rules = array())
        {
            if (count($rules) == 0 )
            {
                require (APPPATH.'config'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'form_validation.php');
                $this->_config_rules = $config;
            }
            else
            {
                $this->_config_rules = $rules;
            }
            $this->_field_data          = array();
            $this->_error_array         = array();
            $this->_error_messages      = array();
            $this->_error_prefix        = '<div class=""><p>';
            $this->_error_suffix        = '</p></div>';
            $this->error_string         = '';
        }
    }