laravel 4 Input::old() is empty

Question

I'm using Laravel 4 for a project, but got an issue. I'm not sure, what i'm doing wrong.

Details:

• Form is posted to the controller's save function.
• When validation fails, i'm redirecting to the create function
• After redirect (using Redirect::to(somewhere)->withErrors($validator)->withInput()):
  • Validation errors are being displayed correctly (if any)
  • Input::old() is empty (it should contain previously submitted data)

Create function in controller

public function create()
{
    $this->scripts[] = 'various js path here';

    return View::make('admin.modules.events.create', array(
        // Loading various scripts specified in this function
        'scripts' => $this->scripts,
    ));
}

In the view:

...
{{ Form::bsInput('event_name', 'Event title', 'event title goes here', $error = (($errors->has('event_name')) ? $errors->get('event_name') : false), $type = 'text', Input::old('event_name')) }}
...

Note: bsInput is a wrapper around Form::Input() to create bootstrap controls together with labels

Controller:

public function save()
{

    if (Input::has('submitEventSave'))
    {
        $event = Mihirevent::find(Input::get(event_id));
        $event_add = false;
    }
    else
    {
        $event = new Mihirevent();
        $event_add = true;
    }

    if ($event === false)
    {
        // doing something else
    }
    else
    {

        $event->event_name              = Input::get('event_name');
        $event->event_slug              = Input::get('event_slug');
        $event->event_description       = Input::get('event_description');
        $event->event_location_text     = Input::get('event_location_text');
        $event->event_location_data     = Input::get('event_location_data');
        $event->event_status            = Input::get('event_status');
        $event->featured_image          = Input::get('featured_image');
        $event->event_date_from         = Input::get('event_date_from');
        $event->event_date_until        = Input::get('event_date_until');

        $validation_rules = $event_add === true?$event->rules:$event->update_rules;

        $inputs = array(
            'event_name'            => $event->event_name,
            'event_slug'            => $event->event_slug,
            'event_location_text'   => $event->event_location_text,
        );


        $validator = Validator::make($inputs, $validation_rules);

        if ($validator->fails())
        {
            Input::flash();
            if ($event_add === true)
            {
                return Redirect::to('admin/event/create')
                           ->withErrors($validator)->withInput();

            }
            else
            {
                return Redirect::to('admin/event/edit/'.$event->event_id)
                            ->withErrors($validator)->withInput();
            }
        }

        // save
        MihirEvent::save();

        // redirect to list 
        return Redirect::route('adminEvent');

    }
}

Update:

bsInput macro:

Form::macro('bsInput', function($name, $text, $placeholder = null, $error = false, $type = 'text', $default = null, $class=null)
{
    $label = Form::label($name, $text, array('class' => 'control-label'));
    $input = Form::input($type, $name, $default, array('placeholder' => $placeholder, 'class' => 'form-control'.($class?' '.$class:'')));

    $error_messages = false;
    if($error)
    {
        $error_messages = '<ol>';
        foreach ($error as $value) {
            $error_messages .= '<li>'.$value.'</li>';
        }
        $error_messages .= '</ol>';
    }

    $html  = '<div class="form-group'.(($error) ? ' has-error' : '').'">';
    $html .= $label;
    $html .= $input;
    $html .= (($error_messages) ? '<div class="alert alert-danger">'.$error_messages.'</div>' : '');
    $html .= '</div>';

    return $html;
});

Solution 1

Finally i found the issue: There was a leading space in the routes.php file, before the <?php opening tag. (was working on a team and someone else added that space).

Solution 2

You are doing Input::flash() and then withInput(), which effectively does Input::flash() twice, probably invalidating the flashed input. Try only doing one of the two.

Also, MihirEvent::save(); is wrong, you want to do $event->save();.

Solution 3

Looking at the Laravel 4 source:

/**
 * Flash an array of input to the session.
 *
 * @param  array  $input
 * @return \Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse
 */
public function withInput(array $input = null)
{
    $input = $input ?: $this->request->input();

    $this->session->flashInput($input);

    return $this;
}

It looks like if you don't pass an array of Input with ->withInput it tries to pull it from the original request. Try modifying the line like so:

        if ($event_add === true)
        {
            return Redirect::to('admin/event/create')
                       ->withErrors($validator)->withInput(Input::all());

        }
        else
        {
            return Redirect::to('admin/event/edit/'.$event->event_id)
                        ->withErrors($validator)->withInput(Input::all());
        }

This should hopefully force it to pass the array of input values, instead of relying on the

        '$this->request->input()'

still existing in the session.