[php] CodeIgniter - File upload required validation

I have 2 text fields and 1 file upload that are all required. Everything works when I require just the text fields, but when I require the file upload the validation error stays saying that a file is required, even though I selected one. Anyone know what I am doing wrong? Many thanks in advance.

//view

<?php echo form_open_multipart('add'); ?>

<fieldset>
    <input type="text" name="name" /><br>
    <input type="text" name="code" /><br>
    <input type="file" name="userfile" /><br><br>
    <input type="submit"value="Add" />
</fieldset>

<?php echo form_close(); ?>

//controller

public function add() {

    $this->form_validation->set_rules('name', 'Name', 'required');
    $this->form_validation->set_rules('code', 'Code', 'required');
    //$this->form_validation->set_rules('userfile', 'Document', 'required');
    //when the above line is active the upload does not go through

    if ($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE) {

        $data['page_view'] = $this->page_view;
        $data['page_title'] = $this->page_title;
        $this->load->view('template', $data);
    }
    else
    {
        $this->load->library('upload');

        if (!empty($_FILES['userfile']['name']))
        {
            $config['upload_path'] = './uploads/';
            $config['allowed_types'] = 'gif|jpg|png|jpeg';     

            $this->upload->initialize($config);

            if ($this->upload->do_upload('userfile'))
            {
                $img = $this->upload->data();
                $file_name = $img['file_name'];

                $name = $this->input->post('name');
                $code = $this->input->post('code');

                $this->load->model('create', 'create_model');
                $this->create_model->create_entry($name, $code, $file_name);

                $data['page_view'] = $this->page_view;
                $data['page_title'] = $this->page_title;
                $this->load->view('template', $data);
            }
            else
            {
                echo $this->upload->display_errors();

            }
        }
    }
}

CodeIgniter file upload optionally ...works perfectly..... :)

---------- controller ---------

function file()
{
 $this->load->view('includes/template', $data);
}

function valid_file()
{
 $this->form_validation->set_rules('userfile', 'File', 'trim|xss_clean');

 if ($this->form_validation->run()==FALSE) 
 {
    $this->file();
 }
 else
 {
  $config['upload_path']   = './documents/';
  $config['allowed_types'] = 'gif|jpg|png|docx|doc|txt|rtf';
  $config['max_size']      = '1000';
  $config['max_width']     = '1024';
  $config['max_height']    = '768';

  $this->load->library('upload', $config);

  if ( !$this->upload->do_upload('userfile',FALSE))
  {
    $this->form_validation->set_message('checkdoc', $data['error'] = $this->upload->display_errors());

    if($_FILES['userfile']['error'] != 4)
    {
        return false;
    }

  }
  else
  {
    return true;
  }
}

i just use this lines which makes it optionally,

if($_FILES['userfile']['error'] != 4)
{
 return false;
}

$_FILES['userfile']['error'] != 4 is for file required to upload.

you can make it unnecessary by using $_FILES['userfile']['error'] != 4, then it will pass this error for file required and works great with other types of errors if any by using return false , hope it works for u ....

you can solve it by overriding the Run function of CI_Form_Validation

copy this function in a class which extends CI_Form_Validation .

This function will override the parent class function . Here i added only a extra check which can handle file also

/**
 * Run the Validator
 *
 * This function does all the work.
 *
 * @access  public
 * @return  bool
 */
function run($group = '') {
    // Do we even have any data to process?  Mm?
    if (count($_POST) == 0) {
        return FALSE;
    }

    // Does the _field_data array containing the validation rules exist?
    // If not, we look to see if they were assigned via a config file
    if (count($this->_field_data) == 0) {
        // No validation rules?  We're done...
        if (count($this->_config_rules) == 0) {
            return FALSE;
        }

        // Is there a validation rule for the particular URI being accessed?
        $uri = ($group == '') ? trim($this->CI->uri->ruri_string(), '/') : $group;

        if ($uri != '' AND isset($this->_config_rules[$uri])) {
            $this->set_rules($this->_config_rules[$uri]);
        } else {
            $this->set_rules($this->_config_rules);
        }

        // We're we able to set the rules correctly?
        if (count($this->_field_data) == 0) {
            log_message('debug', "Unable to find validation rules");
            return FALSE;
        }
    }

    // Load the language file containing error messages
    $this->CI->lang->load('form_validation');

    // Cycle through the rules for each field, match the
    // corresponding $_POST or $_FILES item and test for errors
    foreach ($this->_field_data as $field => $row) {
        // Fetch the data from the corresponding $_POST or $_FILES array and cache it in the _field_data array.
        // Depending on whether the field name is an array or a string will determine where we get it from.

        if ($row['is_array'] == TRUE) {

            if (isset($_FILES[$field])) {
                $this->_field_data[$field]['postdata'] = $this->_reduce_array($_FILES, $row['keys']);
            } else {
                $this->_field_data[$field]['postdata'] = $this->_reduce_array($_POST, $row['keys']);
            }
        } else {
            if (isset($_POST[$field]) AND $_POST[$field] != "") {
                $this->_field_data[$field]['postdata'] = $_POST[$field];
            } else if (isset($_FILES[$field]) AND $_FILES[$field] != "") {
                $this->_field_data[$field]['postdata'] = $_FILES[$field];
            }
        }

        $this->_execute($row, explode('|', $row['rules']), $this->_field_data[$field]['postdata']);
    }

    // Did we end up with any errors?
    $total_errors = count($this->_error_array);

    if ($total_errors > 0) {
        $this->_safe_form_data = TRUE;
    }

    // Now we need to re-set the POST data with the new, processed data
    $this->_reset_post_array();

    // No errors, validation passes!
    if ($total_errors == 0) {
        return TRUE;
    }

    // Validation fails
    return FALSE;
}

you can use call back function, like this

  $this->form_validation->set_rules('userfile', 'Document', 'callback_file_selected_test');

    if ($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE) {
         //error
     }
    else{
           // success       
      }

function file_selected_test(){

    $this->form_validation->set_message('file_selected_test', 'Please select file.');
    if (empty($_FILES['userfile']['name'])) {
            return false;
        }else{
            return true;
        }
}

1. set a rule to check the file name (if the form is multipart)

   $this->form_validation->set_rules('upload_file[name]', 'Upload file', 'required', 'No upload image :(');

2. overwrite the $_POST array as follows:

   $_POST['upload_file'] = $_FILES['upload_file']

3. and then do:

   $this->form_validation->run()

check this form validation extension library can help you to validate files, with current form validation when you validate upload field it treat as input filed where value is empty have look on this really good extension for form validation library

MY_Formvalidation