codeigniter post html textarea - php

Question

when i try to post html from my textarea the variable value is empty and form_validation show error message that the input is required......
i search for solution and i didn't found ....
this is my code
<form accept-charset="utf-8" method="post" action="<?php echo base_url('send_message/validate'); ?>">
<?php
echo validation_errors();
echo form_dropdown('cat_name', $plan_cat);
?>
<div>
<span><label>اسم الراسل باللغه الانجليزية</label></span>
<span><input name="from" type="text" class="textbox" value="<?php echo set_value('from'); ?>" /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span><label>العنوان</label></span>
<span><input name="subject" type="text" class="textbox" value="<?php echo set_value('subject'); ?>" /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span><label>الرساله</label></span>
<?php
/*
$options = array(
'name' => 'message',
'id' => 'elm1'
);
echo form_textarea($options);
*/
?>
<textarea name="message" id="elm1"><?php echo set_value('message'); ?></textarea>
</div>
<div>
<span><input type="submit" value="ارسل" /></span>
</div>
<?php
echo form_close();
?>
and this is my controller code :
$this->load->library('form_validation');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('from', 'الراسل', 'required|min_length[8]');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('subject', 'عنوان الرساله', 'required|min_length[6]');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('message', 'الرساله', 'trim|required|min_length[10]|xss_clean');
if($this->form_validation->run() == false){
$user_id = $this->session->userdata('user_id');
$send = array(
'title' => 'ارسل الرساله',
'plan' => $this->user_plan->get_plan($user_id)
);
$this->load->library('parser');
$this->parser->parse('header', $send);
$this->parser->parse('send_message', $send);
$this->parser->parse('footer', $send);
}else{
$user_id = $this->session->userdata('user_id');
$plan_cat = $this->input->post('cat_name');
$from = $this->input->post('from', true);
$subject = $this->input->post('subject', true);
$message = $this->input->post('message', true);
$message = '<code>'.$message.'</code>';
i hope to find way to solve this :)

Answer 1

First , before going deep in your code , I have to say that : using base_url functionality as action attribute is bad. You have to use site_url instead in this way :
echo site_url('send_message/validate');
The reason stands behind that :
site_url gives you the full URL including the main processing file (index.php) which is important to handle your MVC requests (e.g http://domain.com/codeigniter/index.php/send_message/validate)
base_ur gives you the URL without any consideration for the main file (index.php) (e.g http://domain.com/codeigniter/send_message/validate)
Second (And the important). I see that you are using XSS Filter for the (message) which means you are trying to put illegal content in the textarea. Try to put anything else everything will be ok.
So , make sure that your message value doesn't contain illegal characters.