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Inside this article we will see the concept of Image preview when we upload image file in CodeIgniter 4. We will consider a form in which we will have few input fields like name, email, mobile, profile image and will upload to server.

In this tutorial we will do image upload with preview using ajax request in codeigniter 4. Submit form using ajax in CodeIgniter 4. While adding ajax to codeigniter 4, we will use bit code of jquery to process form data.

Additionally we will add sweetalert for success message and client side form validations.

Learn More –

Let’s get started.

CodeIgniter 4 Installation

To create a CodeIgniter 4 setup run this given command into your shell or terminal. Please make sure composer should be installed.

composer create-project codeigniter4/appstarter codeigniter-4

Assuming you have successfully installed application into your local system.

Environment (.env) Setup

When we install CodeIgniter 4, we will have env file at root. To use the environment variables means using variables at global scope we need to do env to .env

Either we can do via renaming file as simple as that. Also we can do by terminal command.

Open project in terminal

cp env .env

Above command will create a copy of env file to .env file. Now we are ready to use environment variables.

Enable Development Mode

CodeIgniter starts up in production mode by default. You need to make it in development mode to see any error if you are working with application.

Open .env file from root.

# CI_ENVIRONMENT = production

 // Do it to 
 
CI_ENVIRONMENT = development

Now application is in development mode.

Create Database

To create a database, either we can create via Manual tool of PhpMyadmin or by means of a mysql command.

We will use MySQL command to create database. Run this command into Sql tab of PhpMyAdmin.

CREATE DATABASE codeigniter4_app;

Successfully, we have created a database.

Create Database Table

Next, we need a table. That table will be responsible to store data.

Let’s create a table with some columns.

CREATE TABLE students (
id int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
name varchar(120) DEFAULT NULL,
email varchar(120) DEFAULT NULL,
mobile varchar(45) DEFAULT NULL,
profile_image varchar(150) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Successfully, we have created a table.

Next, connect with the application.

Database Connection

Open .env file from project root.

Search for DATABASE. You should see the connection environment variables into it. Put your updated details of database connection string values.

 
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
# DATABASE
#--------------------------------------------------------------------

database.default.hostname = localhost
database.default.database = codeigniter4_app
database.default.username = admin
database.default.password = admin
database.default.DBDriver = MySQLi
database.default.DBPrefix =
database.default.port = 3306

Now, database successfully connected with the application.

Add Routes

Open Routes.php file from /app/Config folder. Add these routes into it.

//...

$routes->get("add-student", "StudentController::addStudent");
$routes->post("save-student", "StudentController::saveStudent"); 

//...

Let’s create Model.

Create Model

Open project into terminal and run this spark command to create model file.

$ php spark make:model Student --suffix

It will create StudentModel.php file at /app/Models folder. Open file and write this complete code into it.

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use CodeIgniter\Model;

class StudentModel extends Model
{
	protected $DBGroup              = 'default';
	protected $table                = 'students';
	protected $primaryKey           = 'id';
	protected $useAutoIncrement     = true;
	protected $insertID             = 0;
	protected $returnType           = 'array';
	protected $useSoftDelete        = false;
	protected $protectFields        = true;
	protected $allowedFields        = [
		"name", 
		"email", 
		"mobile",
        "profile_image"
	];

	// Dates
	protected $useTimestamps        = false;
	protected $dateFormat           = 'datetime';
	protected $createdField         = 'created_at';
	protected $updatedField         = 'updated_at';
	protected $deletedField         = 'deleted_at';

	// Validation
	protected $validationRules      = [];
	protected $validationMessages   = [];
	protected $skipValidation       = false;
	protected $cleanValidationRules = true;

	// Callbacks
	protected $allowCallbacks       = true;
	protected $beforeInsert         = [];
	protected $afterInsert          = [];
	protected $beforeUpdate         = [];
	protected $afterUpdate          = [];
	protected $beforeFind           = [];
	protected $afterFind            = [];
	protected $beforeDelete         = [];
	protected $afterDelete          = [];
}

Create Controller

Back to terminal and run this spark command to create controller.

$ php spark make:controller Student --suffix

It will creates StudentController.php file inside /app/Controllers folder.

Open StudentController.php and write this complete code into it.

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

use App\Models\StudentModel;

class StudentController extends BaseController
{
	public function __construct()
	{
		helper(["url"]);
	}
	public function addStudent()
	{
		// layout of add student form
		return view('add-student');
	}

	public function saveStudent()
	{
		if ($this->request->getMethod() == "post") {

			$rules = [
				"name" => "required",
				"email" => "required|valid_email",
				"mobile" => "required",
				"profileImage" => [
					"rules" => "uploaded[profileImage]|max_size[profileImage,1024]|is_image[profileImage]|mime_in[profileImage,image/jpg,image/jpeg,image/gif,image/png]",
					"label" => "Profile Image",
				],
			];

			if (!$this->validate($rules)) {

				$response = [
					'success' => false,
					'msg' => "There are some validation errors",
				];

				return $this->response->setJSON($response);
			} else {

				$file = $this->request->getFile('profileImage');

				$profile_image = $file->getName();

				// Renaming file before upload
				$temp = explode(".",$profile_image);
				$newfilename = round(microtime(true)) . '.' . end($temp);

				if ($file->move("images", $newfilename)) {

					$studentModel = new StudentModel();

					$data = [
						"name" => $this->request->getVar("name"),
						"email" => $this->request->getVar("email"),
						"mobile" => $this->request->getVar("mobile"),
						"profile_image" => "images/" . $newfilename,
					];

					if ($studentModel->insert($data)) {

						$response = [
							'success' => true,
							'msg' => "Student created successfully",
						];
					} else {

						$response = [
							'success' => false,
							'msg' => "Failed to create student",
						];
					}

					return $this->response->setJSON($response);
				} else {

					$response = [
						'success' => false,
						'msg' => "Failed to upload Image",
					];

					return $this->response->setJSON($response);
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

Create Image Folder

As we are uploading image from form. move() method in codeigniter 4 will upload image into /images folder.

It will be created automatically inside /public folder. But in case if you are getting error about file upload path, then you can create images folder inside /public folder.

Create Layout File

Go to /app/Views folder.

Create a file add-student.php inside it.

Open add-student.php file and write this complete code into it.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>Image Upload with Preview Using Ajax in CodeIgniter 4</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.1/css/bootstrap.min.css">
    <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/sweetalert2@9.17.2/dist/sweetalert2.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <style>
        .hideme {
            display: none;
        }

        #preview-image {
            height: 100px;
            width: 100px;
            border-radius: 20px;
        }
        #frm-add-student label.error{
            color:red;
        }
    </style>
</head>

<body>

    <div class="container">
        <h4 style="text-align: center;">Image Upload with Preview Using Ajax in CodeIgniter 4</h4>
        <div class="panel panel-primary">
            <div class="panel-heading">Image Upload with Preview Using Ajax in CodeIgniter 4</div>
            <div class="panel-body">
                <form class="form-horizontal" enctype="multipart/form-data" action="javascript:void(0)" id="frm-add-student">
                    <div class="form-group">
                        <label class="control-label col-sm-2" for="name">Name:</label>
                        <div class="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="text" class="form-control" required id="name" placeholder="Enter name" name="name">
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div class="form-group">
                        <label class="control-label col-sm-2" for="email">Email:</label>
                        <div class="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="email" class="form-control" required id="email" placeholder="Enter email" name="email">
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div class="form-group">
                        <label class="control-label col-sm-2" for="mobile">Mobile:</label>
                        <div class="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="text" class="form-control" required id="mobile" placeholder="Enter mobile" name="mobile">
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div class="form-group">
                        <label class="control-label col-sm-2" for="profileImage">Profile Image:</label>
                        <div class="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="file" accept="image/*" required onchange="previewImageFile(event)" class="form-control" id="profileImage" name="profileImage">
                            <img src="" alt="Image preview" id="preview-image" class="hideme">
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div class="form-group">
                        <div class="col-sm-offset-2 col-sm-10">
                            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
                        </div>
                    </div>
                </form>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

</body>

</html>

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<!-- Validation library file -->
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery-validate/1.19.2/jquery.validate.min.js"></script>
<!-- Sweetalert library file -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/sweetalert2@9.17.2/dist/sweetalert2.min.js"></script>

<script>
    $(function() {

        // Adding form validation
        $('#frm-add-student').validate();

        // Ajax form submission with image
        $('#frm-add-student').on('submit', function(e) {

            e.preventDefault();

            var formData = new FormData(this);

            //We can add more values to form data
            //formData.append("key", "value");

            $.ajax({
                url: "<?= site_url('save-student') ?>",
                type: "POST",
                cache: false,
                data: formData,
                processData: false,
                contentType: false,
                dataType: "JSON",
                success: function(data) {
                    if (data.success == true) {
                        Swal.fire('Saved!', '', 'success')
                    }
                },
                error: function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
                    alert('Error at add data');
                }
            });
        });
    });

    // Image preview
    var previewImageFile = function(event) {
        var output = document.getElementById('preview-image');
        output.removeAttribute("class");
        output.src = URL.createObjectURL(event.target.files[0]);
        output.onload = function() {
            URL.revokeObjectURL(output.src)
        }
    };
</script>

$(‘#frm-add-student’).validate(); Adding client side form validation
$(‘#frm-add-student’).on(‘submit’, function(e){}) This code is going to submit formdata to server
$.ajax({}); Using Ajax Method of jquery.
e.preventDefault(); It prevents from default behaviour
previewImageFile() This function is used for creating image preview.

Application Testing

Open project terminal and start development server via command:

php spark serve

URL: http://localhost:8080/add-student.

Submitting form without data

Provide value to form

Submit form data to server and response

Data saved into database table

We hope this article helped you to learn Image Upload with Preview Using Ajax in CodeIgniter 4 Tutorial in a very detailed way.

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