Display Php form errors next to fields - php

Question

I looked in the forum for similar questions but could not find anything that would help me.
I have the validation class that validates form entries. But It displays them at the top of the table. How could I display these next to the fields rather then top of the form?
Registration.php
if(Input::exists()){
$validate = new Validate();
$validation = $validate->check($_POST, array(
'fullName' => array(
'required' => true,
'min' => 4,
'max' => 20
),
'username' => array(
'required' => true,
'min' => 4,
'max' => 20,
'unique' => 'user'
),
'email' => array(
'required' => true,
'unique' => 'user'
),
'password' => array(
'required' => true,
'min' => 6
),
'password_again' => array(
'required' => true,
'matches' => 'password'
)
));
if($validation->passed()){
// Register User
echo('Passed');
} else {
// Output Errors
foreach($validation->errors() as $error){
echo $error, '</br>';
}
}
}
?>
<div class="registration">
<h3> Register with WebA<font style="color: #c14a44;">ww</font>ards </h3>
<p> Spare us few little seconds, and you'll be glad you did. </p>
<form method="post" action="">
<input type="text" id="fullName" value="<?php echo escape(Input::get('fullName')); ?>" name="fullName" placeholder="Your Full name">
<input type="text" id="username" value="<?php echo escape(Input::get('username')); ?>" name="username" placeholder="Choose Username" autocomplete="off">
<input type="email" id="email" value="<?php echo escape(Input::get('email')); ?>" name="email" placeholder="Email address">
<input type="password" id="password" name="password" placeholder="Password">
<input type="password" id="password_again" name="password_again" placeholder="Comfirm password">
<input id="gobutton" type="submit" value="Register">
</form>
Validate.php
public function check($source, $items = array()){
foreach($items as $item => $rules){
foreach($rules as $rule => $rule_value){
$value = trim($source[$item]);
$item = escape($item);
// if rule is required and value is empty add error
if($rule === 'required' && empty($value)){
$this->addError("{$item} is required");
} else if(!empty($value)) {
// DEFINE THE RULES FOR VALIDATION MIN, MAX
// USE SWITCH STATEMENT TO SWITCH BETWEEN THE RULES AND CHECK IF VALID
// Case for each of the rules defined on the form
switch($rule){
case 'min':
if(strlen($value) < $rule_value){
$this->addError("{$item} must be a minimum of {$rule_value} characters.");
}
break;
case 'max':
if(strlen($value) > $rule_value){
$this->addError("{$item} must be a maximum of {$rule_value} characters.");
}
break;
case 'matches':
if($value != $source[$rule_value]){
$this->addError("{$rule_value} must match {$item}");
}
break;
case 'unique':
$check = $this->_db->get($rule_value, array($item, '=', $value));
if($check->count()){
$this->addError("{$item} already exists.");
}
break;
}
}
}
}
if(empty($this->_errors)){
$this->_passed = true;
}
return $this;
}

Answer 1

You write code that puts those errors where you want them.
<?php
$errors = array();
if (!$something) {
$errors['field'] = 'Message';
}
?>
<? if (isset($errors['field'])) : ?>
<p class="error"><?php echo $errors['field']; ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>
<input type="text" name="field" ...>

Answer 2

Without seeing more of your code I can't tell (the addError method isn't included), but your validation class doesn't appear to have an easy way of associating an error with a field in the response (it's just a single string), so it will need some work to do this. I would suggest returning the errors as an associative array, with the key being the name of the field, and the value being the error message to be printed, and leave it blank for fields that are correct. Then, in your registration file, you can easily refer to the field in question.

Answer 3

You have to iterate through the errors while you are outputting the fields, check for errors related to that field, and print them after outputting the inputs, instead of echoing all the errors above the form.
The errors array should be multidimensional, if you need to have more than one validation error in each field. You should have an array with an entry for each field name.
You would also need the fields to be an array to achieve this.
This way you could do something like this (untested):
foreach ($field as $f) {
echo "<input type='{$f->type}' id='{$f->name}' value='{$f->value}' name='{$f->name}' placeholder='{$f->description}'>";
if (in_array($f->name, $errors)) {
echo "<span class='errors'>{$errors[$f->name]}</span>";
}
}
If the error entry for each field is an array, you would have to iterate through it before echoing the errors.