How to customize form validation errors in codeIgniter

Question

Is there a file in codeIgniter in which I could just edit so that I can customize the form validation messages?

Answer 1

3 Ways to format/ customize error display

1. Changing delimiters Globally: To globally change the error delimiters, in your controller method, just after loading the Form Validation class. Load after the form_validation library load. you can load in the constructor as well.

$this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters('<div class="error">', '</div>');

2.Changing delimiters Individually: Each of the two error generating functions shown in this tutorial can be supplied their own delimiters as follows

<?php echo form_error('field name', '<div class="error">', '</div>'); ?>
OR
<?php echo validation_errors('<div class="error">', '</div>'); ?>

3. Set delimiters in a config file: You can add your error delimiters in application/config/form_validation.php as follow. Set this 2 config variable in the file. $config['error_prefix'] ='<div class="error_prefix">'; and $config['error_suffix'] = '</div>';

Ref Link: https://www.codeigniter.com/userguide3/libraries/form_validation.html#changing-the-error-delimiters

Answer 2

You can change the delimiters from <div> to <li> by using CodeIgniter's set_error_delimiters function:

$this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters('<li>', '</li>');

You should do this immediately after loading the Form Validation class.

This will change the way validation_errors() and form_error('field_name') are displayed. So you will need to add ul or ol as follows:

echo '<ul>' . validation_errors() . '</ul>';

Answer 3

The same as answers above, just if you want with bootstrap:

<ul>
<?php echo validation_errors('<li><span class="label label-danger">', '</span></li>'); ?>
</ul>

Answer 4

In order to validate devexpress controls in the page using javascript, use the following code:

ASPxClientEdit.ValidateGroup(null);

or

ASPxClientEdit.ValidateGroup('validationgroup');

Answer 5

You can extend the form_validation class for maximum control by creating application/libraries/MY_form_validation.php to add extra validation rules - I've attached an example below.

It is bad practice to edit system libraries directly; CI provides better options (overrides/customization thru MY_ classes, libraries, hooks, etc). This gives you the benefit of easily upgrading CI versions & keeps your application portable / custom code isolated from the core framework.

<?php if (!defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

/**
 * CodeIgniter Form Validation Extension
 */
class MY_Form_validation extends CI_Form_validation {

    /**
     *  MY_Form_validation::valid_url
     * @abstract Ensures a string is a valid URL
     */
    function valid_url($url) {
        if(preg_match("/^http(|s):\/{2}(.*)\.([a-z]){2,}(|\/)(.*)$/i", $url)) {
            if(filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL)) return TRUE;
        }
        $this->CI->form_validation->set_message('valid_url', 'The %s must be a valid URL.');
        return FALSE;
    }

    /**
     * MY_Form_validation::alpha_extra()
     * @abstract Alpha-numeric with periods, underscores, spaces and dashes
     */
    function alpha_extra($str) {
        $this->CI->form_validation->set_message('alpha_extra', 'The %s may only contain alpha-numeric characters, spaces, periods, underscores & dashes.');
        return ( ! preg_match("/^([\.\s-a-z0-9_-])+$/i", $str)) ? FALSE : TRUE;
    }

    /**
     * MY_Form_validation::numeric_comma()
     * @abstract Numeric and commas characters
     */
    function numeric_comma($str) {
        $this->CI->form_validation->set_message('numeric_comma', 'The %s may only contain numeric & comma characters.');
        return ( ! preg_match("/^(\d+,)*\d+$/", $str)) ? FALSE : TRUE;
    }

    /**
     * MY_Form_validation::matches_pattern()
     * @abstract Ensures a string matches a basic pattern
     */
    function matches_pattern($str, $pattern) {
        if (preg_match('/^' . $pattern . '$/', $str)) return TRUE;
        $this->CI->form_validation->set_message('matches_pattern', 'The %s field does not match the required pattern.');
        return FALSE;
    }   

}

/* End of file MY_form_validation.php */
/* Location: ./{APPLICATION}/libraries/MY_form_validation.php */

Answer 6

Take a look at system/language/english/form_validation_lang.php

I believe you can either edit it, or copy it to application/language/english/form_validation_lang.php