CodeIgniter: Displaying Dynamic Errors

Question

Updated:

RJZ:

TdjxQetc is the $activateCode that comes from the DB so when I run /confirm/ I should be getting Sorry you did not have a correct Activation Code as I am not passing in any var ($activateCode) but when I run /confirm/$activateCode I should get Thanks your account is now active you may login! and with the else statement

I am thinking that it should be changed and a new model function developed to check if userActive has been set to 1 and then display another $message so that the link can only be used.

---

View:

<div class = "messages">
    <?php if($confirmMessage != ''): ?>
        <?php if($confirmError): ?>
            <p class="error">
                <?php echo $confirmMessage; ?>
                </p>
                <?php else: ?>
                    <p class="message">
                        <?php $confirmMessage?>
                        </p>
                        <?php endif; ?>
                        <?php endif; ?>
    </div>

Controller:

function confirm(){

        $activateCode = $this->uri->segment(3);
        $error = FALSE;
        $message = '';

        if($activateCode == '')
        {
            $error = TRUE;
            $message = 'Sorry you did not have a correct Activation Code.';
        }
            $userConfirmed = $this->users_model->confirm_user($activateCode);

            if($userConfirmed){
                $message = 'Thanks your account is now active you may login!';
            }else{
                $error = TRUE;
                $message = 'I am sorry we do not have any details with that Activation Code';
            }
            $data['companyName'] = $this->core_model->companyDetails()->coreCompanyName;
            $data['pageTitle'] = "User Confirm";
            $data['confirmError'] = $error;
            $data['confirmMessage'] = $message;
            $this->load->view('frontend/assets/header', $data);
            $this->load->view('frontend/user_confirm', $data);
            $this->load->view('frontend/assets/footer');
    }

---

I am unsure why I am not getting the validation messages, I just get my view. The database is updating to 1.

View:

<h1><?php echo $companyName; echo nbs(1);?> - <?php echo $pageTitle; ?></h1>

    <p>Error: <?php echo validation_errors();?></p>

Controller:

function confirm(){

        $activateCode = $this->uri->segment(3);

        if($activateCode == '')
        {
            $this->form_validation->set_message('userConfirmError', 'Sorry you did not have a correct Activation Code.');
        }
            $userConfirmed = $this->users_model->confirm_user($activateCode);

            if($userConfirmed){
                $this->form_validation->set_message('userConfirmed', 'Thanks your account is now active you may login!');
            }else{
                $this->form_validation->set_message('userRecord', 'I am sorry we do not have any details with that Activation Code');
            }
            $data['companyName'] = $this->core_model->companyDetails()->coreCompanyName;
            $data['pageTitle'] = "User Confirm";
            $this->load->view('frontend/assets/header', $data);
            $this->load->view('frontend/user_confirm', $data);
            $this->load->view('frontend/assets/footer');
    }

Confirm Function:

function confirm_user($activateCode)
    {
     //Selects the userID where the given URI activateCode = ?

        $this->db->select('userID');
        $this->db->from('users');
        $this->db->where('userActiveCode', $activateCode);

        $result = $this->db->get();

        if($result->num_rows == 1)  // If the above result is = 1 then update the userActive row else it will fail
        {
            $this->db->set('userActive', 1);
            $this->db->where('userActiveCode', $activateCode);

            return TRUE;
        }else{
            return FALSE;
        }

Core Model:

function companyDetails()
    {
        static $details;

        if(!$details)
        {
            $this->db->select('coreCompanyName, coreContactName, coreContactEmail');
            $details = $this->db->get('core')->first_row();
        }
        return $details;
    }

Answer 1

You are kind of making a mountain out of a mole hill here Jess. Let's see what we can do to clean this up:

Controller Method

function confirm()
{
    $activate_code = $this->uri->segment(3);

    if(!$this->users_model->confirm_user($activate_code))
        $error = true;
    else
        $error = false;

    $data['companyName'] = $this->core_model->companyDetails()->coreCompanyName;
    $data['pageTitle'] = "User Confirm";
    $data['confirmError'] = $error;
    $this->load->view('frontend/assets/header', $data);
    $this->load->view('frontend/user_confirm', $data);
    $this->load->view('frontend/assets/footer');
}

View

<div class = "messages">
    <?php if($confirmError): ?>
        <p class="error">
            Your activation code is invalid.
        </p>
    <?php else: ?>
         <p class="message">
            Your account has been activated.
         </p>
    <?php endif; ?>
</div>

Please add this code to the top of your UserModel::confirm_user method:

if($activateCode == '')
   return false;

I've simplified your controller method to only two cases -- success or error. There is no need to check activate_code because your model is doing that for you.

In addition, I prefer to keep strings that are only used in views where they belong -- in the view.

Answer 2

If you haven't already, you do need to call the validation_errors() helper (or one of Codeigniter's other helpers for error generation) in your view file.

// in view file
<form>
  <?php echo validation_errors(); ?>
  <!-- rest of form... -->
</form>

If you're calling validation_errors() and still not seeing output, it's probably because validation isn't running. Prior to calling the view, you need to run form validation:

// in controller action function
$this->form_validation->run();

With the code you provided above, that still won't quite take care of things--you haven't actually set up any rules for validation. You'll want to read up on the validation guide, but the general approach looks like this:

// in controller action function
$this->form_validation->add_rules('my_field', 'My Field Name', 'required');
$this->form_validation->run();

You may be wondering what add_rules is actually testing. In Codeigniter, it's generally designed to work on any form data $_POSTed from a form. To use it directly on a model (as it looks like you're trying to do) will take some hacking, and it may be easiest to just use a flag variable and a message string:

function confirm($activateCode = '') {

  $error = false;
  $message = '';

  if($activateCode == '')
  {
    $error = true;
    $message = 'Sorry you did not have a correct Activation Code.';
  }

  $userConfirmed = $this->users_model->confirm_user($activateCode);

  if($userConfirmed)
  {
    $message = 'Thanks your account is now active you may login!';
  }
  else
  {
    $error = true;
    $message = 'I am sorry we do not have any details with that Activation Code';
  }

  $data['error'] = $error;
  $data['message'] = $message
}

In view:

<?php if ($message != ''): ?>
<?php if ($error): ?>
  ERROR: <?php echo $message; ?>
<?php else: ?>
  SUCCESS: <?php echo $message; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>