Validator – JavaScript Form Validator

OK so I said I would be releasing some of the tools I’ve developed over time to the general public. Well here is the first one: Validator.

It is a JavaScript (not that you’ll have to write hardly any of it) form validator. With just a one line of code to initialize it, and a couple of easy attributes to add to your form elements, you can have access to 23 (yes count them 23 – actually do count them I’m afraid of missing one or two) different types of validation for your form inputs.

I wrote Validator after not finding something that worked for me and what I was wanting. I found some that required specific server side languages to be used (not portable), others required complicated JavaScript initialization, or limited you to only specific browsers. I wanted something that just worked, and worked where ever I took it, regardless of the server or the clien’s browser. With that in mind, I developed a portable, customizable Form Validation Library that meets each of these goals, and then some. There are some advantages to using Validator over other methods:

• Do not have to know JavaScript
• Validates for many different types of input values
• Validates different types of input forms, not just text fields.
• Maintains separation of content (xhtml/html), display/style (CSS), and interaction (JavaScript) on the web page.
• External JavaScript file so it can be cached and used on multiple pages efficiently.
• Tested and works on Firefox 2, IE 6, and IE7. (Should work on others as well.)
• Fully customizable error messages by setting attributes.
• Fully customizable error styles by using CSS styles.
• Good documentation on how to use it, and sample pages.

Feel free to check out the Validator Library and post comments and suggestions.

Note: As this is client side validation, it is possible for someone to skip the validation process entirely – so never rely solely on client side validation, always back-up your efforts with server side validation if possible. The client side simply keeps from having to perform too many round trip efforts in the validation process.