Question

I am unable to validate the textarea below, don’t know what’s wrong with my code.

<div id="chooseForm">
    <input type="checkbox" name="ArticlesOrderForm" value="ArticlesOrderForm">
    <b>Articles Order Form </b>
</div>';

$echo .= '  <script>
        jQuery(function($) {
            $(".formGroup").hide();
            $("#chooseForm input:checkbox").on("change", function() {
                if($(this).is(":checked")) {
                    $("#" + $(this).val()).show();
                }
                else {
                    $("#" + $(this).val()).hide();
                }
            });
        });

    </script>';

     $echo .=  '<div id="ArticlesOrderForm" class="formGroup">
                <legend>Articles Order Form</legend>
                <b><label for="article_keywords">Keywords/Titles<span class="reqd">*</span> : </label></b> <textarea rows="6" cols="50" id="article_keywords" name="article_keywords" > </textarea>
            </div>';
<br/><br/>

if($_POST['ArticlesOrderForm'] == 'checked') {  

  if(!isset($_POST['article_keywords']) || empty($_POST['article_keywords'])) {
    $myerror= '<li>'.__('<strong>Keywords/Titles</strong> - missing.','article_keywords').'</li>';
    }   
}

I should get a message ‘keywords/titles – missing’ if someone does not enter into that text area..
Could anyone please tell me whats wrong in my logic?

Please find the full codes here : http://jsfiddle.net/DTcqk/3/
and here: http://jsfiddle.net/YYAbm/

Answer 1

Your textarea is not empty by default:

<textarea rows="6" cols="50" id="article_keywords" name="article_keywords" > </textarea>
                                                    you have space here ----^

So it won’t enter your following if :

if(!isset($_POST['article_keywords']) || empty($_POST['article_keywords'])) {

You should use trim() if you want to catch variables with only spaces in your validation if, like so:

$_POST['article_keywords'] = trim($_POST['article_keywords']);
if(!isset($_POST['article_keywords']) || empty($_POST['article_keywords'])) {