Form Validation in Codeigniter: using set_rules to check text input from a modal window

Question

I'm trying to use Codeigniter's form validation to check if the text input from a modal window is redundant with what's already in the database. I can't seem to get far enough under the hood the Codeigniter's set_rules to see what's happening. I hope one of you code animals can help me.

Ajax sends text to a function in the Controller which picks it up as $value and then in the Controller I want to check if this string is already in a table.field of the DB and if so (not) send $unique=false (true) back to the jQuery. The problem is the set_rules statement always returns true regardless of what's in the DB.

Here's the Controller:

public function change_options()
{
    # Receives and sends back user-entered new option and adds it to database


    # Get strings from ajax in view
    $value = $_POST['new_option'];
    $value_class = $_POST['new_option_class'];
    //echo $value_class; die;

    #Make array to send to model
    $value_array = array('Options' => $value);

    # Make sure option is unique
    $this->load->library('form_validation');
    //$this->form_validation->set_rules('Options', 'Option', 'is_unique['.$value_class.'.Options]');    
    $this->form_validation->set_rules('add-new-submit', 'Option', 'is_unique['.$value_class.'.Options]');    <---- This is always true

    if ($this->form_validation->run() == TRUE) // Only add new option if it is unique
    {
        # Add new option to dropdown in database
        $this->load->model('data_model');
        $this->data_model->add_option($value_class, $value_array);  
        $unique = true;         
    }
    else 
    {           
        # Send string back to view via ajax
        $unique = false;
    }                       

    echo json_encode(array($value, $unique));           
}

I've tried everything I can think of for the first slot of set_rules: 'Options', 'add-new-text', 'add-new-submit', (each of these last two are names in the modal html) $value_class (which is the id for form element in question). Here's the modal for completeness:

  <!-- add-new field -->
  <div class="modal small hide fade" id="add-new" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="add-new-fieldLabel" aria-hidden="true">
      <div class="modal-header">
        <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">√ó</button>
        <h3 id="add-new-fieldLabel">Add New Field</h3>
      </div>
      <div class="modal-body">

          <p>Would you like to add a new item?</p>
          <input type="text" id="add-new-text" name="add-new-text" placeholder="Type the new option">

      </div>

      <div class="modal-footer">
        <button type="button" class="btn btn-success" id="add-new-submit" name="add-new-submit"/>Add</button>
      </div>
 </div><!-- /add-new field -->

Anybody see what's going on?

Answer 1

I figured out how to do this and posted the code in AJAX not posting or receiving apparently . No need to use Form Validation!