Usage of Form Validation Class¶

class Form_validation¶

The Form Validation class provides comprehensive validation framework to minimize the amount of code you need to write. It provides a toolset for validating user input, showing validation errors, and repopulating form fields.

The base functionality for the Form Validation class is inherited from the corresponding CodeIgniter library—refer to the Form Validation documentation in the CodeIgniter user guide for details.

Setting Reference Values¶

For member screen names, member usernames, and member email addresses the Form Validation class needs a reference value. This value will be ignored when checking for duplicates.

Form_validation::set_old_value($key[, $value = ''])¶

Is used to set a reference value for a given key:

ee()->form_validation->set_old_value($key, $value)

Parameters:	$key (mixed) – Name of input or associative array containing input names as the keys and their values as the values $val (string) – The value to set
Return type:	Void

Form_validation::old_value($key)¶

Can be used to retrieve a reference value that was previously set. This method is primarily used internally:

ee()->form_validation->old_value($key)

Parameters:	$key (string) – Name of the input to retrieve
Returns:	Data of the value associated with $key
Return type:	String

User Specific Rules¶

A few rules are provided to check for illegal characters, validate input lengths, and check for duplicates on member fields.

ee()->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'Username', 'required|valid_username');
ee()->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'Username', 'required|valid_username[new]');

ee()->form_validation->set_old_value('screen_name', 'Bob');
ee()->form_validation->set_rules('screen_name', 'Screen Name', 'required|valid_screen_name');

// Note: no reference value is needed if this is a new user
ee()->form_validation->set_rules('email', 'lang:email', 'required|valid_user_email[new]');

ee()->form_validation->set_rules('password', 'lang:password', 'required|valid_password[username]');

Prepping Methods¶

These are convenience methods to help sanitize and validate frequently used input data patterns.

ee()->form_validation->set_rules('emails', 'lang:emails', 'required|prep_list[,]|valid_emails');