Custom validation error messages in CodeIgniter config file

Question

I'm new to CodeIgniter (v 3.0.0) (coming from CakePHP), and I'm trying to set custom validation error messages to one of my forms. I'm using a config file to store all my validation rules, as explained here. This is my application/config/form_validation.php file:

<?php  if (!defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

$config = array(
    'appointments/signup' => array(
        array(
            'field' => 'admin[name]',
            'label' => 'Name',
            'rules' => 'required',
            'errors' => array(
                'required' => 'Please tell us your %s',
            ),
        ),
        array(
            'field' => 'admin[email]',
            'label' => 'Email',
            'rules' => 'required|valid_email|is_unique[users.email]',
            'errors' => array(
                'required' => 'Please enter your %s address',
                'valid_email' => 'Please enter a valid email address',
                'is_unique' => 'That email is already taken. Forgot your password?'
            )
        ),
        array(
            'field' => 'admin[username]',
            'label' => 'Username',
            'rules' => 'required|min_length[4]|max_length[25]|is_unique[user_settings.username]',
            'errors' => array(
                'required' => 'Please choose a %s',
                'min_length' => '%s must me at least 4 characters long',
                'max_length' => '%s cannot exceen 25 characters',
                'is_unique' => '%s is already taken :('
            )
        ),
        array(
            'field' => 'admin[phone_number]',
            'label' => 'Phone number',
            'rules' => 'min_length[0]',
        ),
        array(
            'field' => 'admin[password]',
            'label' => 'Password',
            'rules' => 'required|min_length[8]',
            'errors' => array(
                'required' => 'Please choose a %s',
                'min_length' => '%s must be at least 8 characters long'
            )
        ),
        array(
            'field' => 'admin[passconf]',
            'label' => 'Password',
            'rules' => 'required|matches[admin[password]]',
            'errors' => array(
                'required' => 'Please re-type your %s',
                'matches' => '%ss do not match'
            )
        ),
        array(
            'field' => 'company[company_name]',
            'label' => 'Organization\'s Name',
            'rules' => 'required',
            'errors' => array(
                'required' => 'Please tell us your %s',
            )
        ),
    ),
);

As you can see, I'm trying to set custom validation feedback using the errors array, as detailed here. But I still see the global default The <field name> field is required. message.

Is there a way to set custom validation messages in the config file, without having to edit the global default file?

Answer 1

Try to change the order of the keys in your array, something like this:

'appointments/signup' => array(
    array(
        'field' => 'admin[name]',
        'label' => 'Name',
        'errors' => array(
            'required' => 'Please tell us your %s',
        ),
        'rules' => 'required',
    )

The exact same problem was happening to me, and after some debugging on the core classes, I was feeling stupid enough to try this.

Looks like a bug, but I didn't go any further.

I'm using version 3.0.1.

UPDATE

I was wrong, if this was happening on v 3.0.0, is not happening on 3.0.1. What I described above was me making a mistake with parentheses in my array.

Everything is working as it should.

Answer 2

validation error messages comes from language files because each language has own error messages

I think you can change validation error messages in language files.