Problem with validation

[mikawhat]

I'm using the folowing code for validation:

<script type="text/javascript">
function validate_email(email,alerttxt)
{
with (email)
{
apos=value.indexOf("@")
dotpos=value.lastIndexOf(".")
if (apos<1||dotpos-apos<2) 
  {alert(alerttxt);return false}
else {return true}
}
}


function validate_required(field,alerttxt)
{
with (field)
{
if (value==null||value=="")
  {alert(alerttxt);return false}
else {return true}
}
}
function validate_form(thisform)
{
with (thisform)
{
if (validate_required(name,"Name is required!")==false)
  {name.focus();return false}
}

with (thisform)
{
if (validate_required(phone,"Phone number is required!")==false)
  {phone.focus();return false}
}

with (thisform)
{
if (validate_email(email,"Please enter a valid e-mail address!")==false)
  {email.focus();return false}
}

with (thisform)
{
if (validate_required(comments,"Please write your comments!")==false)
  {comments.focus();return false}
}

}
</script>

when using a submit button validation works fie. When submiting the form with a text link the validation is not working. Here's my text link:

<a href="#" onclick="javascript:document.form1.submit()">send</a>

i'm using the following to call the validation script:

<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" onsubmit="return validate_form(this)" action="contact.php">

Can anybody help me with this?

[NogDog]

I think you may have to call the validate_form() function from the onclick event. (You would therefore probably want to add a thisform.submit() to that function if everything checks out OK.)

[JPnyc]

It won't stop the form submitting though. If you want to stop it submitting you have to call it onsubmit of the form tag.

[mikawhat]

JPnyc wrote:

It won't stop the form submitting though. If you want to stop it submitting you have to call it onsubmit of the form tag.

That's what i'm trying to do but no luck...

[JPnyc]

Because you're not actually using the form tag's submit event, you're telling it to submit via JS.

[mikawhat]

So there's no way to do the validation with the script i'm using?

[bpat1434]

yes there is. Leave it like that. But at the very last line in the function (before the closing "}") you need to return true so that the submission event will be passed and the form will be submitted.

with (thisform)
{
if (validate_required(comments,"Please write your comments!")==false)
  {comments.focus();return false}
}
return true;
}

[JPnyc]

Use else. else return true. If you just put return true without else, it will always submit even if the test fails.

[bpat1434]

No... are you sure? He has return false; in there after every possible failure. So if it's passed all the tests, it should just return true; however, if even one test fails, the function will return false.

[JPnyc]

well that's the basic logic of if/else. If one thing is true do this, if not, do something else. If you just tack code at the end of the block without making it part of an if else condition, it should always execute, unless the program has a break somewhere

[bpat1434]

Yes, that break being his other return statements 😉

[paulnaj]

Hi JPync,

bpat's version is fine.

You're right about if/else of course and your code will usually be more understandable.

But in this case the 'return false;' means that the function will halt and return the value 'false' so it does actually act as a 'break'.

P.

[mikawhat]

the onClick handler i have in my link will trigger the onSubmit handler i have for the validation script? I've tried several ways but i can get the validation to work. I've read somewhere that onSubmit handler will only be triggered with a typical submit button. Is that true?

[paulnaj]

Using the form's submit() method will not trigger the onSubmit event.

Don't use form.submit() directly. Create another function ...

function js_submit(objForm){
    if(validate_form(objForm)){
        objForm.submit();
    } else {
        // whatever
    }
}