[jQuery] Re: [validate] Validation Rules based on IDs rather than Names
Hi Jörn Firstly, the form I have to work with is not of my creation and is somewhat flawed! I agree, your first example would be invalid if the forms were on the same page. If they were on separate pages the IDs are not invalid. However my example is a form that collects a number of instances of the same type of data. When the instance limit is reached, the user progresses to the next stage. Take registering multiple delegates to a conference as an example; you need to register the same type of detail for each delegate. (Ideally a delegate number would be saved to the database therefore negating this whole issue, but this is not the case here and it does serve to illustrate a problematic area). Example: !-- page 1 -- form id=frm input id=e1 name=e1_1 / input id=e2 name=e2_1 / /form !-- page 2 -- form id=frm input id=e1 name=e1_2 / input id=e2 name=e2_2 / /form !-- page n -- form id=frm input id=e1 name=e1_n / input id=e2 name=e2_n / /form Where e1_1, e1_2 and e1_n refer to the same type of content, which can be referenced with the ID, and likewise for e2 etc. By refering to the name of the field for validation you are tightly coupling your script to the name therefore a script would have to be created for each iteration. Your second example would pose a problem if you wanted to show validation errors based on, for example, an individual checkbox chosen within a given group (unless I am very much mistaken). Furthermore, whether using a JavaScript framework or not, it is more robust refering to an element by it's ID (i.e. getElementById or $ (#ID)). Infact, you do in certain cases use the ID as reference (e.g. when refering to dependencies, for example #fieldID:checked). If you could build in a solution that also allows a developer to decide whether to refer to name or ID when creating rules/messages, you will be able to serve everyones needs. I hope it isn't to complicated to achieve :-/ Thanks, Simon On Jun 25, 7:53 pm, Jörn Zaefferer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Let just get this straight, I consider this invalid and useless html: form input id=e1 name=e1_1 / input id=e2 name=e1_2 / /form form input id=e1 name=e2_1 / input id=e2 name=e2_2 / /form While this is valid and useful, and works fine with the validation plugin: form input id=e1_1 name=e1 / input id=e1_2 name=e2 / /form form input id=e2_1 name=e1 / input id=e2_2 name=e2 / /form So either of us is missing something, which we need to clear up at first. Let me know what you think, I sure hope to find a solution to this that works for both of us. Jörn On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 12:58 PM,SimonWhatley[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Jörn, IDs are unique to the page rather than across forms, names do not have to be. The forms I refer to are not on the same page, but on a new instance of the page when a user clicks the submit button. The rule should/could therefore apply to the ID and not the name, since the name can be dynamic. There are two ways I can get around this. Use a server-side scripting language to dynamically output the correct JavaScript and therefore rules and messages or hack the validation plugin. It's not great doing either. I will try looking at the plugin option since it is a more sensible approach. I would suggest that the plugin support element IDs as this is the only way you can guarantee a rule be applied to a specific element (assuming people adhere to the uniqueness of an ID). If you can somehow allow the plugin to be based on either name or ID, to be specified by the developer and defaulting to name, it will allow for backwards compatibility. If I get something working with element.id, I'll send the code over to you. Thanks, Simon On Jun 25, 11:24 am, Jörn Zaefferer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Repeating the same IDs across forms won't work, IDs have to be unique. That is why the plugin relies on names, as those have to be unique (from the plugin point of view) only within their form. You can try to hack the plugin, replacing all element.name snippets with element.id, but I won't support that. Jörn On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 12:10 PM,SimonWhatley[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Joern, I have come across an interesting problem regarding your jQuery Validation script that I am sure you already have a solution to, but I can't find it! I need the validation rules to look at the form input IDs rather than the form input names. I have a form that iterates 10 times (when you click next), so the the names of the inputs increment by 1 each time, whilst the IDs stay the same. (This is not my doing, so I have to live with the naming convention!) For example: Form1 has input names field1_1, field2_1, field3_1 and input ids field1, field2, field3 Form2 has input names field1_2, field2_2, field3_2 and input ids field1, field2, field3 I originally thought your jQuery Validation script looked at the IDs
[jQuery] Re: [validate] Validation Rules based on IDs rather than Names
Previous version of the plugin used IDs solely, and there are way to many drawbacks to give that another try. But I think that isn't even necessary, there are other solutions. To start with, you can add classes to inputs to define their validation rules. If you have no control over the serverside, add the classes before applying the validation on the clientside. So basically just this: $(#e1).addClass(required); $(#e2).addClass(required minlength); $(#frm).validate(); The likely next stopgap would be custom messages for those fields. I've recently added a chapter to the documentation for refactoring rules and messages, which could help here: http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Validation#Refactoring_rules Let me know if that helps. Just keep in mind that specifiying rules must be based on names or happen inline, IDs are not an option. Jörn On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 2:08 PM, Simon Whatley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Jörn Firstly, the form I have to work with is not of my creation and is somewhat flawed! I agree, your first example would be invalid if the forms were on the same page. If they were on separate pages the IDs are not invalid. However my example is a form that collects a number of instances of the same type of data. When the instance limit is reached, the user progresses to the next stage. Take registering multiple delegates to a conference as an example; you need to register the same type of detail for each delegate. (Ideally a delegate number would be saved to the database therefore negating this whole issue, but this is not the case here and it does serve to illustrate a problematic area). Example: !-- page 1 -- form id=frm input id=e1 name=e1_1 / input id=e2 name=e2_1 / /form !-- page 2 -- form id=frm input id=e1 name=e1_2 / input id=e2 name=e2_2 / /form !-- page n -- form id=frm input id=e1 name=e1_n / input id=e2 name=e2_n / /form Where e1_1, e1_2 and e1_n refer to the same type of content, which can be referenced with the ID, and likewise for e2 etc. By refering to the name of the field for validation you are tightly coupling your script to the name therefore a script would have to be created for each iteration. Your second example would pose a problem if you wanted to show validation errors based on, for example, an individual checkbox chosen within a given group (unless I am very much mistaken). Furthermore, whether using a JavaScript framework or not, it is more robust refering to an element by it's ID (i.e. getElementById or $ (#ID)). Infact, you do in certain cases use the ID as reference (e.g. when refering to dependencies, for example #fieldID:checked). If you could build in a solution that also allows a developer to decide whether to refer to name or ID when creating rules/messages, you will be able to serve everyones needs. I hope it isn't to complicated to achieve :-/ Thanks, Simon On Jun 25, 7:53 pm, Jörn Zaefferer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Let just get this straight, I consider this invalid and useless html: form input id=e1 name=e1_1 / input id=e2 name=e1_2 / /form form input id=e1 name=e2_1 / input id=e2 name=e2_2 / /form While this is valid and useful, and works fine with the validation plugin: form input id=e1_1 name=e1 / input id=e1_2 name=e2 / /form form input id=e2_1 name=e1 / input id=e2_2 name=e2 / /form So either of us is missing something, which we need to clear up at first. Let me know what you think, I sure hope to find a solution to this that works for both of us. Jörn On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 12:58 PM,SimonWhatley[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Jörn, IDs are unique to the page rather than across forms, names do not have to be. The forms I refer to are not on the same page, but on a new instance of the page when a user clicks the submit button. The rule should/could therefore apply to the ID and not the name, since the name can be dynamic. There are two ways I can get around this. Use a server-side scripting language to dynamically output the correct JavaScript and therefore rules and messages or hack the validation plugin. It's not great doing either. I will try looking at the plugin option since it is a more sensible approach. I would suggest that the plugin support element IDs as this is the only way you can guarantee a rule be applied to a specific element (assuming people adhere to the uniqueness of an ID). If you can somehow allow the plugin to be based on either name or ID, to be specified by the developer and defaulting to name, it will allow for backwards compatibility. If I get something working with element.id, I'll send the code over to you. Thanks, Simon On Jun 25, 11:24 am, Jörn Zaefferer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Repeating the same IDs across forms won't work, IDs have to be unique. That is why the plugin relies on names, as those have to be unique (from the plugin point of view) only within their form.
[jQuery] Re: [validate] Validation Rules based on IDs rather than Names
Repeating the same IDs across forms won't work, IDs have to be unique. That is why the plugin relies on names, as those have to be unique (from the plugin point of view) only within their form. You can try to hack the plugin, replacing all element.name snippets with element.id, but I won't support that. Jörn On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 12:10 PM, Simon Whatley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Joern, I have come across an interesting problem regarding your jQuery Validation script that I am sure you already have a solution to, but I can't find it! I need the validation rules to look at the form input IDs rather than the form input names. I have a form that iterates 10 times (when you click next), so the the names of the inputs increment by 1 each time, whilst the IDs stay the same. (This is not my doing, so I have to live with the naming convention!) For example: Form1 has input names field1_1, field2_1, field3_1 and input ids field1, field2, field3 Form2 has input names field1_2, field2_2, field3_2 and input ids field1, field2, field3 I originally thought your jQuery Validation script looked at the IDs on the page, so the same validation rules would apply for field1 whether on form1 or form2. However this is not the case. How do I change your script to look at the ID? Many thanks in advance for your help. Simon
[jQuery] Re: [validate] Validation Rules based on IDs rather than Names
Hi Jörn, Element IDs are unique to a page, whereas names are not. By this very fact, it is problematic applying validation rules to a specific element if that element's name exists multiple times (as will often be the case, especially with checkboxes, radio buttons and mutliple- selects). The problem I have encountered doesn't refer to multiple forms on a page, but rather multiple iterations of the form across pages, i.e. when a user submits the form. The validation rules and messages are the same for each form so the form's input IDs should be used as the reference. E.g. This is valid for two distinct pages with identical forms Form1 has input IDs field1, field2, field3 Form2 has input IDs field1, field2, field3 Where field1, field..n IDs could be referenced by your validation script and re-used for each form. However, since my form has dynamic names, I would need to create multiple iterations of the validation script, since after the first iteration of the form, the names of the form fields are changed (with a numeric increment). There are two solutions to this problem, both of which are far from ideal: 1. Dynamically create the JavaScript used to validate a page using a server-side script 2. As you suggest, hack your plugin to use element IDs rather than names. I've decided the latter is out of the question since it is your plugin and as soon as an upgrade is available, I will not be able to use it. The former will have to be used for the time-being. I would kindly suggest that you consider implementing IDs as references in your plugin. This could be an attribute a developer has to implement in their script, the default being name, the ideal scenario being ID. Since IDs by their nature are unique this will allow users of your plugin to clearly identify which element the rule is acting upon. Many thanks, Simon. On Jun 25, 11:24 am, Jörn Zaefferer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Repeating the same IDs across forms won't work, IDs have to be unique. That is why the plugin relies on names, as those have to be unique (from the plugin point of view) only within their form. You can try to hack the plugin, replacing all element.name snippets with element.id, but I won't support that. Jörn On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 12:10 PM, Simon Whatley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Joern, I have come across an interesting problem regarding your jQuery Validation script that I am sure you already have a solution to, but I can't find it! I need the validation rules to look at the form input IDs rather than the form input names. I have a form that iterates 10 times (when you click next), so the the names of the inputs increment by 1 each time, whilst the IDs stay the same. (This is not my doing, so I have to live with the naming convention!) For example: Form1 has input names field1_1, field2_1, field3_1 and input ids field1, field2, field3 Form2 has input names field1_2, field2_2, field3_2 and input ids field1, field2, field3 I originally thought your jQuery Validation script looked at the IDs on the page, so the same validation rules would apply for field1 whether on form1 or form2. However this is not the case. How do I change your script to look at the ID? Many thanks in advance for your help. Simon
[jQuery] Re: [validate] Validation Rules based on IDs rather than Names
Hi Jörn, IDs are unique to the page rather than across forms, names do not have to be. The forms I refer to are not on the same page, but on a new instance of the page when a user clicks the submit button. The rule should/could therefore apply to the ID and not the name, since the name can be dynamic. There are two ways I can get around this. Use a server-side scripting language to dynamically output the correct JavaScript and therefore rules and messages or hack the validation plugin. It's not great doing either. I will try looking at the plugin option since it is a more sensible approach. I would suggest that the plugin support element IDs as this is the only way you can guarantee a rule be applied to a specific element (assuming people adhere to the uniqueness of an ID). If you can somehow allow the plugin to be based on either name or ID, to be specified by the developer and defaulting to name, it will allow for backwards compatibility. If I get something working with element.id, I'll send the code over to you. Thanks, Simon On Jun 25, 11:24 am, Jörn Zaefferer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Repeating the same IDs across forms won't work, IDs have to be unique. That is why the plugin relies on names, as those have to be unique (from the plugin point of view) only within their form. You can try to hack the plugin, replacing all element.name snippets with element.id, but I won't support that. Jörn On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 12:10 PM, Simon Whatley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Joern, I have come across an interesting problem regarding your jQuery Validation script that I am sure you already have a solution to, but I can't find it! I need the validation rules to look at the form input IDs rather than the form input names. I have a form that iterates 10 times (when you click next), so the the names of the inputs increment by 1 each time, whilst the IDs stay the same. (This is not my doing, so I have to live with the naming convention!) For example: Form1 has input names field1_1, field2_1, field3_1 and input ids field1, field2, field3 Form2 has input names field1_2, field2_2, field3_2 and input ids field1, field2, field3 I originally thought your jQuery Validation script looked at the IDs on the page, so the same validation rules would apply for field1 whether on form1 or form2. However this is not the case. How do I change your script to look at the ID? Many thanks in advance for your help. Simon
[jQuery] Re: [validate] Validation Rules based on IDs rather than Names
Let just get this straight, I consider this invalid and useless html: form input id=e1 name=e1_1 / input id=e2 name=e1_2 / /form form input id=e1 name=e2_1 / input id=e2 name=e2_2 / /form While this is valid and useful, and works fine with the validation plugin: form input id=e1_1 name=e1 / input id=e1_2 name=e2 / /form form input id=e2_1 name=e1 / input id=e2_2 name=e2 / /form So either of us is missing something, which we need to clear up at first. Let me know what you think, I sure hope to find a solution to this that works for both of us. Jörn On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 12:58 PM, Simon Whatley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Jörn, IDs are unique to the page rather than across forms, names do not have to be. The forms I refer to are not on the same page, but on a new instance of the page when a user clicks the submit button. The rule should/could therefore apply to the ID and not the name, since the name can be dynamic. There are two ways I can get around this. Use a server-side scripting language to dynamically output the correct JavaScript and therefore rules and messages or hack the validation plugin. It's not great doing either. I will try looking at the plugin option since it is a more sensible approach. I would suggest that the plugin support element IDs as this is the only way you can guarantee a rule be applied to a specific element (assuming people adhere to the uniqueness of an ID). If you can somehow allow the plugin to be based on either name or ID, to be specified by the developer and defaulting to name, it will allow for backwards compatibility. If I get something working with element.id, I'll send the code over to you. Thanks, Simon On Jun 25, 11:24 am, Jörn Zaefferer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Repeating the same IDs across forms won't work, IDs have to be unique. That is why the plugin relies on names, as those have to be unique (from the plugin point of view) only within their form. You can try to hack the plugin, replacing all element.name snippets with element.id, but I won't support that. Jörn On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 12:10 PM, Simon Whatley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Joern, I have come across an interesting problem regarding your jQuery Validation script that I am sure you already have a solution to, but I can't find it! I need the validation rules to look at the form input IDs rather than the form input names. I have a form that iterates 10 times (when you click next), so the the names of the inputs increment by 1 each time, whilst the IDs stay the same. (This is not my doing, so I have to live with the naming convention!) For example: Form1 has input names field1_1, field2_1, field3_1 and input ids field1, field2, field3 Form2 has input names field1_2, field2_2, field3_2 and input ids field1, field2, field3 I originally thought your jQuery Validation script looked at the IDs on the page, so the same validation rules would apply for field1 whether on form1 or form2. However this is not the case. How do I change your script to look at the ID? Many thanks in advance for your help. Simon
