Question

I have a form that is loading the results into a div, and jquery validate doesn’t recognize that I need my field validated because there is no actual “Submit” going on, right? How can I bypass this and still validate my field?

$('#IDsearchform').validate({
    rules: {
        term: {
            required: true,
            minlength: 2
        },
    }
});

..no worky 🙁

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#IDsearchform').validate({
        rules: {
            term: {
                required: true,
                minlength: 4
            },
        }
    }); 
    $('.activeView').click(function() {
        $('.activeMask').slideToggle(250);
        $('.list-style-arrow').toggleClass('nudge');
    });
        function showLoader(){
            $('.search-background').fadeIn(200);
        }
        //hide loading bar
        function hideLoader(){
            $('.sub_cont').fadeIn(1500);
            $('.search-background').fadeOut(200);
        };
        $('.searchInput').keydown(function(e) {
          if(e.keyCode == 13) {
            $('#IDsearchform').valid();
            showLoader();
            $('.sub_cont').fadeIn(1500);
            $('.content .sub_cont').load('superfetch.php?val=' + $('.searchInput').val(), hideLoader());
            e.preventDefault();
          }
          });     
        $('.searchBtn').click(function(){
            $('#IDsearchform').valid();
            //show the loading bar
            showLoader();
            $('.sub_cont .loader').fadeIn(1500);         
            $('.content .sub_cont').load('superfetch.php?val=' + $('.searchInput').val(), hideLoader());

    });
});

Answer 1

you can call when you want to validate it

$('#IDsearchform').valid();

that will return true or false

EDIT with new information

if(e.keyCode == 13) {
            if($('#IDsearchform').valid()){
             showLoader();
            $('.sub_cont').fadeIn(1500);
            $('.content .sub_cont').load('superfetch.php?val=' + $('.searchInput').val(), hideLoader());

             }
            e.preventDefault();
          }