Yii validation with file upload failing - validation

Question

I'm having what looks to me some strange behaviour within Yii.
I have a simple file upload, that takes a name and the file itself.
If I just submit the form with no name or file I can bypass the validation (i.e - My controller action is called and is trying to process the uploaded file) I think my rules() are setup accordingly to stop this. These are my relevant rules:
public function rules() {
return array(
array('name file', 'required', 'message' => 'This field is required'),
array('file', 'file', 'on' => 'insert', 'allowEmpty' => false, 'safe'=>true,
'maxSize'=> 512000,
'maxFiles'=> 1,
'mimeTypes' => 'application/msword, text/plain',
'tooLarge'=> 'file cannot be larger than 500KB.',
'wrongMimeType'=> 'Format must be: .doc .txt'
),
I specified that the file is required and also within the file array that allowEmpty should be false. So what am I doing wrong here?
Thanks in advance for any help
Controller
public function actionCreate() {
$model = new File;
if (isset($_POST['File'])) {
$model->setAttributes($_POST['File']);
// Set file
$model->file = CUploadedFile::getInstance($model,'file');
// Set directory
$dest = Yii::getPathOfAlias('application.uploads');
$model->tmp_name = time();
$model->date_added = new CDbExpression('NOW()');
$model->file_type = $model->file->type;
$model->file_size = $model->file->size;
$model->extension = $model->file->extensionName;
if ($model->save()) {
$model->file->saveAs(($dest . '/' . $model->tmp_name . '.' . $model->file->extensionName));
Yii::app()->user->setFlash('success','<strong>Success!</strong> Your file has been uploaded');
}
}
$this->render('create', array( 'model' => $model));
}

Answer 1

For one you're missing a , in your first rule between name and file. Then you say:
I can bypass the validation (i.e - My controller action is called ...
From that i assume you use AJAX validation and expect the upload to fail. But you can't do AJAX validation on file uploads with CActiveForm.
So if you fix the typo above, you'll at least get AJAX validation for the name attribute.
You should maybe also remove the 'on'=>'insert' scenario. And you don't need the 'safe'=>true because you don't do massive assignment with the $model->file attribute.

Answer 2

For me I found that if I validate before I process the uploaded file it worked. Wasn't quite sure why I had to do that as I thought the save() method automatically called the validate() method
Validation will be performed before saving the record. If the validation fails, the record will not be saved. You can call getErrors() to retrieve the validation errors.
Updated code
public function actionCreate() {
$model = new File;
if (isset($_POST['File'])) {
$model->setAttributes($_POST['File']);
if($model->validate()){ // add in validation call
// Set file
$model->file = CUploadedFile::getInstance($model,'file');
// Set directory
$dest = Yii::getPathOfAlias('application.uploads');
$model->tmp_name = time();
$model->date_added = new CDbExpression('NOW()');
$model->file_type = $model->file->type;
$model->file_size = $model->file->size;
$model->extension = $model->file->extensionName;
if ($model->save()) {
$model->file->saveAs(($dest . '/' . $model->tmp_name . '.' . $model->file->extensionName));
Yii::app()->user->setFlash('success','<strong>Success!</strong> Your file has been uploaded');
}
}
}
$this->render('create', array( 'model' => $model));
}
Hope that helps anyone, thanks to #Michael Härtl too