Input Class

Calling the Input Class

class Input

ExpressionEngine uses the Input class for two main purposes:

1. To provide some helper methods for fetching input data and pre-processing it.
2. To pre-process global input data for security.

This class is initialized automatically.

Fetching a Superglobal value

You are not required to use this class to call the incoming data from the superglobal arrays, it will still be available through the superglobals themselves. However, the input class does offer some benefits.

All of the superglobal methods allow the specification of an optional second parameter that lets you run the data through the XSS filter. It’s enabled by setting the second parameter to TRUE (boolean).

Lastly, the superglobal methods will check to see if the item is set and return FALSE (boolean) if not. This lets you conveniently use data without testing whether an item exists first. In other words, normally you might do something like this:

if ( ! isset($_POST['something']))
{
    $something = FALSE;
}
else
{
    $something = $_POST['something'];
}

With the built-in methods you can simply do this:

$something = ee()->input->post('something');

To automatically run the returned data through the Security::xss_clean method, simply specify the second parameter is TRUE:

$something = ee()->input->post('something', TRUE);

The available superglobal methods are:

post($index[, $xss_clean = FALSE])

The first parameter will contain the name of the POST item you are looking for:

ee()->input->post('some_data');

get($index[, $xss_clean = FALSE])

This method is identical to the post method, only it fetches get data:

ee()->input->get('some_data');

get_post($index[, $xss_clean = FALSE])

This method will search through both the post and get streams for data, looking first in post, and then in get:

ee()->input->get_post('some_data');

cookie($index[, $xss_clean = FALSE])

This method is identical to the post method, only it fetches cookie data:

ee()->input->cookie('some_data');

server($index[, $xss_clean = FALSE])

This method is identical to the above method, only it fetches server data:

ee()->input->server('some_data');

ip_address()

Returns the IP address for the current user. If the IP address is not valid, the method will return an IP of: 0.0.0.0:

echo ee()->input->ip_address();

valid_ip($ip[, $which = ''])

Takes an IP address as input and returns TRUE or FALSE (boolean) if it is valid or not.

Note: The Input::ip_address method above validates the IP automatically.

if ( ! $this->input->valid_ip($ip))
{
    echo 'Not Valid';
}
else
{
    echo 'Valid';
}

user_agent()

Returns the user agent (web browser) being used by the current user:

echo ee()->input->user_agent();

Cleaning Superglobals

The input class is loaded by EE core early in processing. It automatically does the following:

• Destroys all global variables in the event register_globals is turned on.
• Filters the POST/GET/COOKIE array keys, permitting only alpha-numeric (and a few other) characters.
• Standardizes newline characters to \\n

Setting and Deleting Cookies

The input library contains two methods for manipulating cookies. One for setting them and one for deleting them before their expiration.

set_cookie([$name = ''[, $value = ''[, $expire = '']]])

Sets cookie based on name and value. The advantage of using this function over the standard PHP function is EE will automatically add the cookie domain, cookie prefix, and cookie path as specified in the preferences. Those are helpful for making these cookies unique to EE and not interfering with other cookies set for your site by other software.

delete_cookie($name)

Cleanly delete a cookie. The advantage of using this function over the standard PHP function is EE will automatically add the cookie domain, cookie prefix, and cookie path as specified in the preferences.

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