Building An Uploader Form

To create a file uploader form with the Trongate framework, we first need to build a method in a controller that will output the form. The method can be named anything, but it is generally recommended to use a name that reflects the purpose of the method, such as 'upload'. For example:

function upload() {
    $this->module('trongate_security');
    $this->trongate_security->_make_sure_allowed();
    $data['form_location'] = str_replace('/upload', '/submit_upload', current_url());
    $data['view_file'] = 'upload';
    $this->template('admin', $data);
    }

Understanding The Upload Method

In the example above, we're using the trongate_security module to ensure that only users with the role of 'admin' can access the uploader form. We're then declaring a form location by performing a string replace on the current URL. This means that if the form is displayed on http://localhost/demo/users/upload/88, the form location will be http://localhost/demo/users/submit_upload/88.

Finally, we're passing an instruction to load a page containing a view file called 'upload'.  The view file will contain the actual form code, which is similar to an ordinary HTML form, but with two key differences:

The code for the view file might look something like this:

<h1>Upload File</h1>
<p>Choose a file and then hit 'Upload'.</p>
<?php
validation_errors();
echo form_open_upload($form_location);
echo form_file_select('my_file');
echo form_submit('submit', 'Upload');
echo form_close();

The view file is similar to an ordinary HTML form but it uses Trongate specific functions such as 'form_open_upload()' to create the opening form tag and 'form_file_select()' to create the file input field.

Below is a screenshot, showing our uploader form within the context of an 'admin' template:

an example of a file uploader form