Workaround for validation and checking if the form has been actually posted

Question

Here is my typical form

        $errors = array();

        if ($this->request->post('submit')) { // <----- I don't like this line
            $post = Validation::factory($this->request->post())
                ->rule('email', 'not_empty')
                ->rule('email', 'email')
                ->rule('password', 'not_empty');

            if ($post->check()) {
                // ok, do something
            }

            $errors = $post->errors(true);
        }

        $this->template->content = View::factory('auth/register')
            ->set('errors', $errors);

As you see - I check if there is a submit element which means that we have actually posted form, not just requested for the first show.

If we remove that condition - we will have validation errors for the first page request. The errors about empty email and password form. Which is actually just incorrect.

So how do you solve this issue?

and what exactly is the issue? you want to check for POST without checking for POST ? — Kemo, Jun 01 '11 at 12:42
@Shakti Singh: it is subjective. I don't like it and expect it is some hack to avoid it ;-) — zerkms, Jun 01 '11 at 12:42
@Kemo: yes. I'm asking about common practice. I don't believe everyone put same line for every form validation — zerkms, Jun 01 '11 at 12:43
@zerkms: subjective, I can understand. Hopes there should be an alternate but I don't think there is. Good Luck — Shakti Singh, Jun 01 '11 at 12:47
Also, why dont redirect user after validation (even it fails) to prevent confusing page refresh? — biakaveron, Jun 01 '11 at 13:21
@biakaveron: I do so. This is not the topic so I removed all irrelevant code. So redirection is inside `// ok, do something` piece — zerkms, Jun 01 '11 at 13:33
@zerkms I mean if validation _fails_, you will show registration view _without_ redirection. — biakaveron, Jun 01 '11 at 13:44
@biakaveron: yes, and that is correct. No redirect needed to be performed if *validation failed*. Otherwise you need some storage to keep entered values. Don't see any reasons for that. — zerkms, Jun 01 '11 at 13:47

Kemo · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-01T13:13:07.440

3

This is how I'd do it, except for the condition:

if (Request::POST === $this->request->method())

would be more suitable. There is no way to "skip" the POST check without having consequences (like the errors in your case).

We had a discussion on this topic, 5.3 will probably add more features. Something like:

$this->post(function(){
    // do POST-specific stuff 
})
->get(function(){
    // do GET-specific stuff
});

edited Jun 01 '11 at 13:13

answered Jun 01 '11 at 12:42

Kemo

6,942
3
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@zerkms for a couple years now, yes – Kemo Jun 01 '11 at 12:50
@Kemo: so you put `if (Request::POST === $this->request->method())` everywhere before post validations? PS: what is `$this->post()`? – zerkms Jun 01 '11 at 13:07
@zerkms: yes, that's the correct way for doing it "HMVC compatible" way, altough it seems quite long. You can also use if ($this->request->post()) to check if POST array will evaluate to TRUE, though that only checks if there is some POST data, not if the request type is POST. And concerning $this->post() etc., that could become the way of doing this using closures when Kohana gets to 5.3 – Kemo Jun 01 '11 at 13:12
@Kemo: uhm, what `$this` object supposed to have `post()` method? – zerkms Jun 01 '11 at 13:32
@zerkms: that would be the controller scope. Notice that this hasn't yet been implemented (though it can be on app level, easily), it's just one of the ideas. – Kemo Jun 01 '11 at 13:34

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 01 '11 at 13:17

1

if ($post = $this->request->post())
{
    $post = Validation::factory($post);
    ...
}

answered Jun 01 '11 at 13:17

biakaveron

5,493
1
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Workaround for validation and checking if the form has been actually posted

2 Answers2

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