Description
Forms have become most important section in any web application as they interact with the users and store/retrieve the data. There are two stages in forming a CodeIgniter Form.
- Create CodeIgniter Form Validation Rule
- Building the form
Description
Rules can be defined for a form in two ways either pre-define it in a
config.php file or define dynamically in the controller function. First way of defining is better if configuration is defined on multiple controller functions.
For Example,
[php]
$config['contact_rules'] = array(
'name' => array(
'field' => 'name',
'label' => 'Name',
'rules' => 'trim|required|xss_clean'
),
'email' => array(
'field' => 'email',
'label' => 'Email',
'rules' => 'trim|required|valid_email'
),
'subject' => array(
'field' => 'subject',
'label' => 'Subject',
'rules' => 'trim|required|xss_clean'
),
'message' => array(
'field' => 'message',
'label' => 'Message',
'rules' => 'trim|required|xss_clean'
)
);
[/php]
In the above code, the Codeigniter forms configuration has two-dimensional key/value pair based array in which the first defines fields and second dimension defines three different property of each item. Like,
field:name attribute of that field.label:label text of that field.rules:denotes the conditions that has to be satisfied. -> 'required' denotes that form validation class should not be empty. -> 'valid_email' rule denotes that the inputted email must have correct format. -> 'trim' rule performs removal operation on the input that was submitted. -> ‘xss_clean’ rule protects from security threats.
Step-1
Create the login form, Signup form and Admin Page to interact with the users. For this purpose, 
login_form.php
[php]
<html>
<?php
if (isset($this->session->userdata['logged_in'])) {
header("location: http://localhost/login/index.php/user_authentication/user_login_process");
}
?>
<head>
<title>Login Form</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo base_url(); ?>css/style.css">
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro|Open+Sans+Condensed:300|Raleway' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
</head>
<body>
<?php
if (isset($logout_message)) {
echo "<div class='message'>";
echo $logout_message;
echo "</div>";
}
?>
<?php
if (isset($message_display)) {
echo "<div class='message'>";
echo $message_display;
echo "</div>";
}
?>
<div id="main">
<div id="login">
<h2>Login Form</h2>
<hr/>
<?php echo form_open('user_authentication/user_login_process'); ?>
<?php
echo "<div class='error_msg'>";
if (isset($error_message)) {
echo $error_message;
}
echo validation_errors();
echo "</div>";
?>
<label>UserName :</label>
<input type="text" name="username" id="name" placeholder="username"/><br /><br />
<label>Password :</label>
<input type="password" name="password" id="password" placeholder="**********"/><br/><br />
<input type="submit" value=" Login " name="submit"/><br />
<a href="<?php echo base_url() ?>index.php/user_authentication/user_registration_show">To SignUp Click Here</a>
<?php echo form_close(); ?>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
[/php]
registration_form.php
[php]
<html>
<?php
if (isset($this->session->userdata['logged_in'])) {
header("location: http://localhost/login/index.php/user_authentication/user_login_process");
}
?>
<head>
<title>Registration Form</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo base_url(); ?>css/style.css">
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro|Open+Sans+Condensed:300|Raleway' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
</head>
<body>
<div id="main">
<div id="login">
<h2>Registration Form</h2>
<hr/>
<?php
echo "<div class='error_msg'>";
echo validation_errors();
echo "</div>";
echo form_open('user_authentication/new_user_registration');
echo form_label('Create Username : ');
echo"<br/>";
echo form_input('username');
echo "<div class='error_msg'>";
if (isset($message_display)) {
echo $message_display;
}
echo "</div>";
echo"<br/>";
echo form_label('Email : ');
echo"<br/>";
$data = array(
'type' => 'email',
'name' => 'email_value'
);
echo form_input($data);
echo"<br/>";
echo"<br/>";
echo form_label('Password : ');
echo"<br/>";
echo form_password('password');
echo"<br/>";
echo"<br/>";
echo form_submit('submit', 'Sign Up');
echo form_close();
?>
<a href="<?php echo base_url() ?> ">For Login Click Here</a>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
[/php]
admin_page.php : If the user login without any errors, they are directed to admin page.
[php]
<html>
<?php
if (isset($this->session->userdata['logged_in'])) {
$username = ($this->session->userdata['logged_in']['username']);
$email = ($this->session->userdata['logged_in']['email']);
} else {
header("location: login");
}
?>
<head>
<title>Admin Page</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo base_url(); ?>css/style.css">
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro|Open+Sans+Condensed:300|Raleway' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
</head>
<body>
<div id="profile">
<?php
echo "Hello <b id='welcome'><i>" . $username . "</i> !</b>";
echo "<br/>";
echo "<br/>";
echo "Welcome to Admin Page";
echo "<br/>";
echo "<br/>";
echo "Your Username is " . $username;
echo "<br/>";
echo "Your Email is " . $email;
echo "<br/>";
?>
<b id="logout"><a href="logout">Logout</a></b>
</div>
<br/>
</body>
</html>
[/php]
CodeIgniter Form Helper is used instead of writing HTML code.
Form Helper has the functions which helps in creating various form segments. For example, Submit button, InputBox , Dropdown boxes. To create the segments, form helper library must be loaded initially which is done in two methods.
- Configure in autoload.php present in application/config as shown below.
$autoload['helper'] = array(‘form’);
- In controller function, use $this->load->helper(‘form’) ;
Step-2
Make sure to set the base URL in
config.php file as shown below.
[php]$config['base_url'] = 'http://localhost/login/';[/php] Step-3
Then, create the database
login with the table <user_login.
[sql]
create database login;
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `user_login` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`user_name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`user_email` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`user_password` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
)
[/sql] Step-4
In this step, CodeIgniter Form Validation is set to all input fields using controller named
user_authentication.php in the folder application/controllers and enter the below code. When the form is submitted, user existence is also checked in the database.
[php]
<?php
session_start(); //we need to start session in order to access it through CI
Class User_Authentication extends CI_Controller {
public function __construct() {
parent::__construct();
// Load form helper library
$this->load->helper('form');
// Load form validation library
$this->load->library('form_validation');
// Load session library
$this->load->library('session');
// Load database
$this->load->model('login_database');
}
// Show login page
public function index()
{
$this->load->view('login_form');
}
// Show registration page
public function user_registration_show()
{
$this->load->view('registration_form');
}
// Validate and store registration data in database
public function new_user_registration()
{
// Check validation for user input in SignUp form
$this->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'Username', 'trim|required|xss_clean');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('email_value', 'Email', 'trim|required|xss_clean');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('password', 'Password', 'trim|required|xss_clean');
if ($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE)
{
$this->load->view('registration_form');
}
else
{
$data = array
(
'user_name' => $this->input->post('username'),
'user_email' => $this->input->post('email_value'),
'user_password' => $this->input->post('password')
);
$result = $this->login_database->registration_insert($data);
if ($result == TRUE)
{
$data['message_display'] = 'Registration Successfully !';
$this->load->view('login_form', $data);
}
else
{
$data['message_display'] = 'Username already exist!';
$this->load->view('registration_form', $data);
}
}
}
// Check for user login process
public function user_login_process()
{
$this->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'Username', 'trim|required|xss_clean');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('password', 'Password', 'trim|required|xss_clean');
if ($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE)
{
if(isset($this->session->userdata['logged_in']))
{
$this->load->view('admin_page');
}
else
{
$this->load->view('login_form');
}
}
else
{
$data = array(
'username' => $this->input->post('username'),
'password' => $this->input->post('password')
);
$result = $this->login_database->login($data);
if ($result == TRUE)
{
$username = $this->input->post('username');
$result = $this->login_database->read_user_information($username);
if ($result != false)
{
$session_data = array(
'username' => $result[0]->user_name,
'email' => $result[0]->user_email,
);
// Add user data in session
$this->session->set_userdata('logged_in', $session_data);
$this->load->view('admin_page');
}
}
else
{
$data = array(
'error_message' => 'Invalid Username or Password'
);
$this->load->view('login_form', $data);
}
}
}
// Logout from admin page
public function logout()
{
// Removing session data
$sess_array = array(
'username' => ''
);
$this->session->unset_userdata('logged_in', $sess_array);
$data['message_display'] = 'Successfully Logout';
$this->load->view('login_form', $data);
}
}
?>
[/php] Step-5
Further, username and password is checked in the database and if present, respective data is shown.
login_database.php
[php]
<?php
Class Login_Database extends CI_Model {
// Insert registration data in database
public function registration_insert($data)
{
// Query to check whether username already exist or not
$condition = "user_name =" . "'" . $data['user_name'] . "'";
$this->db->select('*');
$this->db->from('user_login');
$this->db->where($condition);
$this->db->limit(1);
$query = $this->db->get();
if ($query->num_rows() == 0)
{
// Query to insert data in database
$this->db->insert('user_login', $data);
if ($this->db->affected_rows() > 0)
{
return true;
}
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
// Read data using username and password
public function login($data)
{
$condition = "user_name =" . "'" . $data['username'] . "' AND " . "user_password =" . "'" . $data['password'] . "'";
$this->db->select('*');
$this->db->from('user_login');
$this->db->where($condition);
$this->db->limit(1);
$query = $this->db->get();
if ($query->num_rows() == 1)
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
// Read data from database to show data in admin page
public function read_user_information($username)
{
$condition = "user_name =" . "'" . $username . "'";
$this->db->select('*');
$this->db->from('user_login');
$this->db->where($condition);
$this->db->limit(1);
$query = $this->db->get();
if ($query->num_rows() == 1)
{
return $query->result();
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
}
?>
[/php]
Key Points
CodeIgniter Form Validation chapter draws out following important points.
- CodeIgniter forms are formed with form helper that creates the various section of form.
- CodeIgniter Form Validation are done validation rules of CodeIgniter.