Server Side Form Validation PHP with multi-file Upload - php

Question

HTML:
Owner: input type="text" name="owner[]" />
Category:
<select name="cat[]">
<option value="clothes">Clothes</option>
<option value="shoes">Shoes</option>
<option value="accessories">Accessories</option>
</select>
Upload: <input type="file" name="image[]" />
whith function that clone the same fields when click on "+ button"
I count the POST field with:
$num = count($_FILES['image']['name']);
because i want to know how many times the end user clone the fields.
what i want is Make sure that the user has to fill all fields which he opend with "+ button" i cant check all the hidden fields i want to check just the field he opend.
so what can i do ?
i cant do like this:
$owner = $_POST['owner'][$i];
$cat = $_POST['cat'][$i];
$file = $_FILES['image'][$i];
if ($owner && $cat && $file)
echo "bla bla bla";
else
echo "fill all the fields!";
can anyone help me ?
thank you

Answer 1

There are some points which you need to make sure beforehand. Whenever you are using any input field's name attribute as "owner[]" or "cat[]" or "image[]", you will get an array then. But since, input file's property accessing capability is already 2D array by default, so now you will be able to access those properties as a 3D array.
When you have added a "[]" for the input file field's name attribute, you will now get the name of the 1st file as "$_FILES['image'][0]['name']", because array indices start with 0. As per your question, you can validate using the following way:-
<?php
$numOwners = count($_POST['owner']);
$numCats = count($_POST['cat']);
$numFiles = count($_FILES['image']);
// Check to see if the number of Fields for each (Owners, Categories & Files) are the same
if ($numFiles === $numCats && $numFiles === $numOwners) {
$boolInconsistencyOwners = FALSE;
$boolInconsistencyCats = FALSE;
$boolInconsistencyFiles = FALSE;
for ($i = 0; $i < $numFiles; $i++) {
if (empty($_POST['owner'][$i])) {
$boolInconsistencyOwners = TRUE;
break;
}
if (empty($_POST['cat'][$i])) {
$boolInconsistencyCats = TRUE;
break;
}
if (!is_uploaded_file($_FILES['image'][$i]['tmp_name'])) {
$boolInconsistencyFiles = TRUE;
break;
}
}
if ($boolInconsistencyOwners || $boolInconsistencyCats || $boolInconsistencyFiles) {
echo "I knew that there will be some problems with users' mentality!";
// Redirect with proper Error Messages
}
else {
echo "Wow, Users have improved & have become quite obedient!";
// Proceed with normal requirements
}
}
else {
echo "Something fishy is going on!";
}
?>
Hope it helps.