store the $_POST form data if page fail to submit - php

Question

I am using codeigniter. I am currently having a very simple form (nothing but input fields) that submits to the controller for processing.
That all doesn't matter, but what I am asking about is that I have an upload file in the form also. so the upload function will check for file size and type and so on and gives error if not complying. when that happens and I choose another file that matches the requirement, I submit but nothing goes to next page but the uploaded file and its details while the other fields are not posted or are blank.
It is as if the post is not cached and when I select new file to upload and its okay, it checks $_POST of those fields and they are empty. How can I check for that so that to make sure all fields contain values?
Thank you and more than happy to help elaborating.

Answer 1

To repopulate the fields you can use the set_value function.
set_value()
Permits you to set the value of an input form or textarea. You must supply the field name via the first parameter of the function. The second (optional) parameter allows you to set a default value for the form.
First you check if the form validation and upload was successful.
If both are successful we redirect the user to a new page.
If one of these is unsuccessful we add the error message to your data array which we can access in our view and display our form.
Controller
public function signup()
{
// Data array
$data = array();
// Load form validation libary
$this->load->library('form_validation');
// Load upload library and set configuration
$config['upload_path'] = './uploads/';
$this->load->library('upload', $config);
// Set the required fields
$this->form_validation->set_rules('first_name', 'First name', 'required');
if ($this->form_validation->run() == TRUE)
{
// If upload was succesfull
if ($this->upload->do_upload())
{
$upload_data = $this->upload->data();
// Build array to store in database
$save_data = array(
'first_name' => $this->input->post('first_name'),
'image' => $upload_data['file_name']
);
// Send data to your model to process
$this->your_model->save($save_data);
// Redirect to success page
redirect('registration_succes');
}
else
{
// Upload failed, set error
$data['error'] = $this->upload->display_errors();
}
}
else
{
// Form validation failed, set error
$data['error'] = validation_errors();
}
// Display the form by default or on error
$this->load->view('myform', $data);
}
In our view we repopulate the fields with the submitted values using the set_value function.
View ( myform )
<?php echo form_open_multipart('signup');?>
<fieldset>
<?php if( isset($error) && ! empty($error) ): ?>
<div class="error"><?php echo $error; ?></div>
<?php endif; ?>
<p>
<label>First name</label>
<input type="text" name="first_name" value="<?php echo set_value('first_name'); ?>" />
</p>
<p>
<label>File</label>
<input type="file" name="userfile" size="20" />
</p>
<p>
<input type="submit" />
</p>
</fieldset>
</form>