Codeigniter - Date format - Form Validation

Question

I'm using codeigniter with PHP. I'm using following form,

<?php
    echo form_open('/register/create_new', $form_params);
?>

DOB: <input type="text" id="dob" name="reg[dob]">
     <input type="submit" value="Create Account" />
</form>

here, #dob is in dd-mm-yyyy format.

my validation code is,

array(
  'field' => 'reg[dob]',
  'label' => 'DOB',
  'rules' => 'required'
)

How can i set the rules for correct date validation?

Answer 1

You can take use of CodeIgniters callback functions by creating a callback_date_valid() function that check if the date is valid.

And to check if it is valid, you could use PHP's checkdate function

array(
  'field' => 'reg[dob]',
  'label' => 'DOB',
  'rules' => 'required|date_valid'
)

function callback_date_valid($date){
    $day = (int) substr($date, 0, 2);
    $month = (int) substr($date, 3, 2);
    $year = (int) substr($date, 6, 4);
    return checkdate($month, $day, $year);
}

Answer 2

I have a pretty clean solution for this. You can extend codeigniters form validation library.

Do this by putting a MY_Form_validation.php file in your application/libraries folder. This file should look like this:

class MY_Form_validation extends CI_Form_validation {

    public function __construct($rules = array()) {
        parent::__construct($rules);
    }


    public function valid_date($date) {
        $d = DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d', $date);
        return $d && $d->format('Y-m-d') === $date;
    }
}

To add the error message, you go to your application/language/ folder and open the form_validation_lang.php file. Add an entry to the $lang array at the end of the file, like so:

$lang['form_validation_valid_date'] = 'The field {field} is not a valid date';

Note that the key here must be the same as the function name (valid_date).

Then in your controller you use this as any other form validation function like for example 'required'

$this->form_validation->set_rules('date','Date','trim|required|valid_date');