cakephp $this->validates multiple recode set many

Question

I am trying to validate dynamically added controls on the form. I have a registration form where I have an option for users to add 1 to 5 education info. I am using Jquery to handle add remove fields.

HTML Code

<input name="data[Usereducation][0][schoolname]" id="Usereducation0Schoolname" type="text">
<input name="data[Usereducation][1][schoolname]" id="Usereducation1Schoolname" type="text">
...................

On submission this generates the array as..

Array ( [0] => Array ( [schoolname] => ) [1] => Array ( [schoolname] => ) [3] => Array ( [schoolname] => ) 

My modal has following validation.

public $validate = array(
    'schoolname'=>array(
            'School Name'=>array(
                'rule'=>'notEmpty',
                'message'=>'Please enter your School Name.'
            )
        )           
    );

In the controller I am trying to validate these with $this->Usereducation->validates();

But nothing happens. Any suggestions on how to handle this?

Answer 1

Method 1:

Use saveMany For validating the multiple records at once

In your controller just use saveMany/saveAll method of model instead of validates, since you're having too many records to validated.

if ($this->UserInformation->saveMany($this->request->data)) {
    // do your stuff
} else {
    // check the validation errors here.
    pr($this->UserInformation->validationErrors);exit;
}

and your $this->request->data should be like this

Array(
    'Userinformation' => array(
        0 => array(
            'schoolname' => 'school 0'
        ),
        1 => array(
            'schoolname' => 'school 1'
        ),
        2 => array(
            'schoolname' => 'school 2'
        ),
    )
)

Method 2:

Here is an another way of validating multiple records at once:

If you want to validate the records, and don't want to perform save operation it is useful..

$this->ModelName->validateMany($data['ModelName']);

Here $data should look like as below

$data = array(
    'ModelName' => array(
        'field1' => 'value1'
        'field2' => 'value2'
        'field3' => 'value3'
    )
);

And you can access the validation errors (on unsuccessful validation) Using $this->ModelName->validationErrors

In Your case

if ($this->UserInformation->validateMany($this->request->data['Userinformation'])) {
    // do your stuff
} else {
    // check the validation errors here.
    pr($this->UserInformation->validationErrors);exit;
}

and your $this->request->data should be like this

Array(
    'Userinformation' => array(
        0 => array(
            'schoolname' => 'school 0'
        ),
        1 => array(
            'schoolname' => 'school 1'
        ),
        2 => array(
            'schoolname' => 'school 2'
        ),
    )
)