Validation not running on empty custom fields on an entry (when creating programmatically)

Question

I'm trying to save an entry via a controller. They are contact form submission. A few of the fields are required.

    $section = Craft::$app->sections->getSectionByHandle('contactSubmissions');
$entry = new Entry();
$entry-&gt;sectionId = $section-&gt;id;
$entry-&gt;typeId = 2;
$entry-&gt;authorId = 1;
$entry-&gt;enabled = true;

$entry-&gt;setFieldValues([
    'contactName' =&gt; ucwords($data['contactName']),
    'contactEmail' =&gt; $data['contactEmail'],
    'contactCompany' =&gt; $data['contactCompany'],
    'contactMessage' =&gt; $data['contactMessage'],
    'contactHeardAbout' =&gt; $data['contactHeardAbout'],
    'contactWebsite' =&gt; $data['contactWebsite'],
    'contactTitle' =&gt; $data['contactTitle'],
]);


if ( Craft::$app-&gt;elements-&gt;saveElement($entry) ) {
    //$this-&gt;sendMail($entry);
}

die(var_dump($entry-&gt;getErrors()));

return $entry;

The only validation that runs if the missing title, which in this case is the contactName. All other keys in the $data array are empty strings. They do not trigger any validation and the empty entry saves into the database.

If I were to go into the control panel and try to save the entry, it would fail with the validation errors.

If I were to enter a value for the email field, but have an invalid email, that validation then gets triggered. But none of the empty fields do.

Additional info

Craft version: 3.6.10

PHP version: 7.3.13

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 30 '21 at 06:21

You would need to set the entry's scenario to live just before saving the element.

$section = Craft::$app->sections->getSectionByHandle('contactSubmissions');
$entry = new Entry();
$entry->sectionId = $section->id;
$entry->typeId = 2;
$entry->authorId = 1;
$entry->enabled = true;
$entry->setFieldValues([
    'contactName' => ucwords($data['contactName']),
    'contactEmail' => $data['contactEmail'],
    'contactCompany' => $data['contactCompany'],
    'contactMessage' => $data['contactMessage'],
    'contactHeardAbout' => $data['contactHeardAbout'],
    'contactWebsite' => $data['contactWebsite'],
    'contactTitle' => $data['contactTitle'],
]);
$entry->setScenario(Entry::SCENARIO_LIVE);
if ( Craft::$app->elements->saveElement($entry) ) {
    //$this->sendMail($entry);
}
die(var_dump($entry->getErrors()));
return $entry;

Alternatively, If you want to save entries from the front-end, unless you have very specific requirements, you could use:

Guest entries plugin (if users are not logged in)
Make a front-end entry form (if users are logged in)

Thank you and Brandon for this! I wouldn't have been able to figure out this one — good_afternoon, Mar 31 '21 at 13:21

Validation not running on empty custom fields on an entry (when creating programmatically)

1 Answers1