Question

I am using this code for email validation:

function validateEmail(){
    //testing regular expression
    var a = $("#email").val();
            $.ajax({
              type: "GET",
              url: "is_email.php",
              data: "email="+a,
              success: function(response){
                //if it's valid email
        if(is_email(a)){
        email.removeClass("error");
        emailInfo.text("");
        emailInfo.removeClass("error");
        return true;

                //if it's NOT valid
        }else{
        email.addClass("error");
        emailInfo.text("Please type a valid E-mail");
        emailInfo.addClass("error");
        return false;
        }
              }
            });
}

But I get this error in firebug: is_email is not defined.

How can I correct this?

Thank you

Answer 1

Looks like you’re trying to use a PHP function in JavaScript. That’s not possible, but if the is_email.php script does the validation and prints something depending on the result, you can use that.

Let’s assume that the is_email.php prints “ok” when the email is valid (change to whatever the actual output is):

function validateEmail(){
    var a = $("#email").val();
    $.ajax({
      type: "GET",
      url: "is_email.php",
      data: "email="+a,
      success: function(response){
          if( response == "ok" ){
              // email is valid
          } else {
              // email is not valid
          }
      }
   });
}

But, I suspect that is_email.php only contains the is_email() function. In this case you must make another PHP script that actually uses that function and use it in the Ajax call instead:

<?php  // validate_email.php
require( 'is_email.php' );

if( is_email( $_GET[ 'email' ] ) ) {
    echo 'ok';
}
else {
    echo 'invalid';
}

then change the url: "is_email.php" line in the Ajax call to url: "validate_email.php" (or whatever the new script is called).

Also note that returning true or false from the callback function in the Ajax is meaningless: there’s nothing to receive that information. validateEmail() has already long since returned when the Ajax call has completed. You have to do everything you want to do inside the callback function.