Update Pictures In cakePHP - cakephp

Question

I have an Up which has to do a lot with pictures. I have a problem. I know might seems stupid, and even i know that im missing something, but i havent found out yet. So in few words. Let's say I have an Item. |id|name|price|condition|location|picture|
picture is the picture path that i save to DB. So when i create a new Item all the field are required. Till here everything works Fine.Now lets say i open Item x to edit. I edit only the name and the price and other i leave them as they are, and i press save, browse button, of the picture field is still required and i have to open galerry find the pic again in order to save. So my question is this: How can i do a picture upload only if i browse for the picture, but not to forget that on creation must not be empty. To Ilustrate it here is some code:
<?php
App::uses('AppModel', 'Model');
class Item extends AppModel {
public $name = 'Item';
public $primaryKey = 'id';
public $displayField = 'title';
public $validate = array(
'id' => array(
'blank' => array(
'rule' => 'blank',
'on' => 'create',
),
),
'title' => array(
'words' => array(
'rule' => array('custom', '/[0-9A-Za-z\._-]/'),
'message' => 'The Item name can only contain letters, numbers and spaces.',
),
'maxLength' => array(
'rule' => array('maxLength', 100),
'message' => 'The Item name must not be longer than 100 characters.',
),
'notEmpty' => array(
'rule' => array('notEmpty'),
'message' => 'The Item name must not be empty.',
),
'isUnique' => array(
'rule' => 'isUnique',
'message' => 'This Item name already exists.',
),
),
'picture' => array(
'uploadError' => array(
'rule'=>'uploadError',
'message' => 'The File Did NOT Upload. Please Try Again!',
),
'fileSize'=>array(
'rule'=>array('fileSize','<=','30MB'),
'message'=>'File Size should be less then 30MB',
),
'processMediaUpload'=>array(
'rule' =>'processMediaUpload',
'message'=>'Uploading File Failed!',
),
),
'item_location_id' => array(
'notEmpty' => array(
'rule' => array('notEmpty'),
'message' => 'You Must Choose a Location',
),
'numeric' => array(
'rule' => array('numeric'),
//'message' => 'Your custom message here',
),
),
'address' => array(
'words' => array(
'rule' => array('custom', '/[0-9A-Za-z\._-]/'),
'message' => 'The Item Address can only contain letters, numbers and spaces.',
),
'maxLength' => array(
'rule' => array('maxLength', 150),
'message' => 'Address can not be longer then 150 characters long',
),
'notEmpty' => array(
'rule' => array('notEmpty'),
'message' => 'You Should Put an Address',
),
),
);
public $belongsTo = array(
'ItemLocation' => array(
'className' => 'ItemLocation',
'foreignKey' => 'item_location_id',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => ''
),
);
public function processMediaUpload($mediacheck = array()) {
$dir = 'img/uploads/item/media/';
if (isset($mediacheck['media_path']['name'])) {
if(is_uploaded_file($mediacheck['media_path']['tmp_name'])) {
if (trim($mediacheck['media_path']['name'])!=""){
// here we delete if the image exist and replace it.
if (file_exists(WWW_ROOT . $dir . $mediacheck['media_path']['name'])) {
unlink(WWW_ROOT . $dir . $mediacheck['media_path']['name']);
return true;
}
}
$allowedExts = array('jpeg', 'png', 'jpg', 'gif');
$extension=strtolower(end(explode(".", $mediacheck['media_path']['name'])));
if (($mediacheck['media_path']['size'] < 55000000)) {
if(in_array($extension, $allowedExts)){
if ($mediacheck['media_path']["error"] > 0) {
$this->invalidate('media_path', $mediacheck['media_path']['error']);
return false;
} else {
if (file_exists( WWW_ROOT . $dir) && is_dir( WWW_ROOT . $dir)) {
if (file_exists( WWW_ROOT . $dir . $mediacheck['media_path']['name'])) {
$this->invalidate('media_path', 'File Allredy Exists!');
return false;
} else {
move_uploaded_file($mediacheck['media_path']['tmp_name'], WWW_ROOT . $dir . mktime() . $mediacheck['media_path']['name']);
$this->data[$this->alias]['media_path'] = mktime() . $mediacheck['media_path']['name'];
return TRUE;
}
} else { // in this case the directory doesent exist so we create it
mkdir($dir, 0777, true);
move_uploaded_file($mediacheck['media_path']['tmp_name'], WWW_ROOT . $dir . mktime() . $mediacheck['media_path']['name']);
$this->data[$this->alias]['media_path'] = mktime() . $mediacheck['media_path']['name'];
return TRUE;
}
}
}else { $this->invalidate('media_path', 'Invalid File Format! '); return false;}
} else { $this->invalidate('media_path', 'File size is To big!'); return false; }
} else { $this->invalidate('media_path', 'You must upload a file before you Submit!'); return false; }
} else { $this->invalidate('media_path', 'You must upload a file before you Submit!'); return false; }
// better safe then sorry!
return false;
}
Add Form:
<div class="items form">
<?php echo $this->Form->create('Item', array('type'=>'file')); ?>
<fieldset>
<legend><?php echo __('Add New Item'); ?></legend>
<?php
echo $this->Form->input('id');
echo $this->Form->input('title');
echo $this->Form->input('item_description');
echo $this->Form->input('location_description');
echo $this->Form->input('media_path', array('label'=>'Media','type'=>'file'));
echo $this->Form->input('item_location_id', array('label'=>'Location'));
echo $this->Form->input('item_characteristic_id', array('label'=>'Characteristics'));
echo $this->Form->input('address', array('id' => 'address'));
echo "<div id=\"map_canvas\" style=\"width:98%; height:400px;\"> </div>";
echo $this->Form->input('longitude', array('id'=>'longitude', 'readonly'=>'readonly'));
echo $this->Form->input('latitude', array('id'=>'latitude', 'readonly'=>'readonly'));
echo $this->Form->input('first_seller_id');
echo $this->Form->input('second_seller_id');
echo $this->Form->input('brochure_path', array('label'=>'Broshure','type'=>'file'));
echo $this->Form->input('seo_title');
echo $this->Form->input('seo_description' , array('label' => 'SEO Description'));
echo $this->Form->input('seo_url' , array('label' => 'SEO Url'));
echo $this->Form->input('seo_keywords' , array('label' => 'SEO Keywords'));
?>
</fieldset>
Edit Form:
<div class="items form">
<?php echo $this->Form->create('Item', array('type'=>'file')); ?>
<fieldset>
<legend><?php echo __('Edit Item'); ?></legend>
<?php
$dir = "/img/uploads/item/media/";
echo $this->Form->input('id');
echo $this->Form->input('title');
echo $this->Form->input('item_description');
echo $this->Form->input('location_description');
echo $this->Form->input('media_path', array('label'=>'Media','type'=>'file'));
echo $this->Form->input('hiddenimage', array('type'=>'hidden','value'=> $this->Form->value('media_path') ));
$Image = $this->Form->value( 'media_path');
if(empty($Image) || $Image==NULL)
{$Image = "/img/uploads/noimg.jpg";}
else {$Image = $dir . $Image; }
echo $this->Html->image($Image,array('align'=>'absbottom','style'=>'max-height:100px'));
echo "<h3> Test: ". $this->Form->value('media_path') . "</h3>";
echo $this->Form->input('item_location_id', array('label'=>'Location'));
echo $this->Form->input('item_characteristic_id', array('label'=>'Characteristics'));
echo $this->Form->input('address', array('id' => 'address'));
echo "<div id=\"map_canvas\" style=\"width:98%; height:400px;\"> </div>";
echo $this->Form->input('longitude', array('id'=>'longitude', 'readonly'=>'readonly'));
echo $this->Form->input('latitude', array('id'=>'latitude', 'readonly'=>'readonly'));
echo $this->Form->input('first_seller_id');
echo $this->Form->input('second_seller_id');
echo $this->Form->input('brochure_path', array('label'=>'Broshure','type'=>'file'));
echo $this->Form->input('seo_title');
echo $this->Form->input('seo_description' , array('label' => 'SEO Description'));
echo $this->Form->input('seo_url' , array('label' => 'SEO Url'));
echo $this->Form->input('seo_keywords' , array('label' => 'SEO Keywords'));
?>
</fieldset>

Answer 1

Look at adding the on parameter to your rules.
'on' => 'create'
Will only trigger the validation on an insert (i.e. a new record).
If a rule has defined ‘on’ => ‘create’, the rule will only be enforced
during the creation of a new record. Likewise, if it is defined as
‘on’ => ‘update’, it will only be enforced during the updating of a
record.

Answer 2

In your edit action could you not just check the field and remove it if it's empty? Is that what you mean? Like:
if (empty($this->request->data['Item']['media_path'])) {
unset($this->request->data['Item']['media_path']);
}
It would probably be more complicated than that, checking to see if it's valid upload I guess, but would something like that work?