Question

I need help i found this tutorial for validating form without refreshing but the problem is i think this is for just text fields 🙂 but i’m using 4 different radiobuttons i really need this script to work with these radiobutton !

here is the javascript file 🙂 !

runOnLoad(function(){
  $("input#name").select().focus();         
});

$(function() {        
    $('.error').hide();        
    $(".button").click(function() {  

        // validate and process form here  
        $('.error').hide(); 
        var name = $("input#name").val();  

        if (name == "") {  
            $("label#name_error").show();  
            $("input#name").focus();  
            return false;  
        }  

        var email = $("input#email").val();  
        if (email == "") {  
            $("label#email_error").show();  
            $("input#email").focus();  
            return false;  
        }  

        var mobile = $("input#mobile").val();  
        if (mobile == "") {  
            $("label#mobile_error").show();  
            $("input#mobile").focus();  
            return false;  
        }  

        var college = $("input#college").val();  
        if (college == "") {  
            $("label#college_error").show();  
            $("input#college").focus();  
            return false;  
        }  

        var university = $("input#university").val();  
        if (university == "") {  
          $("label#university_error").show();  
          $("input#university").focus();  
          return false;  
        }  

        var level = $("input#level").val();  
        if (level == "") {  
          $("label#level_error").show();  
          $("input#level").focus();  
          return false;  
        }  

        var first_preference = $("input#first_preference").val();  
            if (first_preference == "") {  
          $("label#first_preference_error").show();  
          $("input#first_preference").focus();  
          return false;  
        }  

        var second_preference = $("input#second_preference").val();  
        if (second_preference == "") {  
          $("label#second_preference_error").show();  
          $("input#second_preference").focus();  
          return false;  
        }  

        var third_preference = $("input#third_preference").val();  
        if (third_preference == "") {  
          $("label#third_preference_error").show();  
          $("input#third_preference").focus();  
          return false;  
        }  

        var heard = $("input#heard").val();  
        if (heard == "") {  
          $("label#heard_error").show();  
          $("input#heard").focus();  
          return false;  
        }     

        var applying = $("input#applying").val();  
        if (applying == "") {  
          $("label#applying_error").show();  
          $("input#applying").focus();  
          return false;  
        }    

        var strength = $("input#strength").val();  
        if (strength == "") {  
          $("label#strength_error").show();  
          $("input#strength").focus();  
          return false;  
        }   

        var weakness = $("input#weakness").val();  
        if (weakness == "") {  
          $("label#weakness_error").show();  
          $("input#weakness").focus();  
          return false;  
        }    

        var previousEx = $("input#previousEx").val();  
        if (previousEx == "") {  
          $("label#previousEx_error").show();  
          $("input#previousEx").focus();  
          return false;  
        }   



        var dataString = 'name='+ name + '&email=' + email + '&mobile=' + mobile + '&college=' + college + '&university=' + university + '&level=' + level + '&first_preference=' + first_preference + '&second_preference=' + second_preference + '&third_preference=' + third_preference + '&heard=' + heard + '&applying=' + applying + '&strength=' + strength + '&weakness=' + weakness + '&previousEx=' + previousEx;

        $.ajax({
              type: "POST",
              url: "php/database_sorting.php",
              data: dataString,
              success: function() {
                $('#contact_form').html("<div id='message'></div>");
                $('#message').html("<h2>Contact Form Submitted!</h2>")
                .append("<p>We will be in touch soon.</p>")
                .hide()
                .fadeIn(1500, function() {
                  $('#message').append("<img id='checkmark' src='images/done.png' />");
                });
              }
        });
        return false;
    });
});

DEMO:

Answer 1

Assuming you have a radio buttons grouped by name, to check if one of them is selected:

//update the name to correspond to your radios group's name
if (!$('input[type="radio"][name="radiosGroup"]:checked').length) {
    alert('no radios selected!');
    //you can adapt the error message to your liking,
    //e.g. replacing the alert with $('#radio_error').show()
    return false;
}

Fiddle

---

Another way to “skip” JS validation on radio buttons is to leave one of them pre-checked when you generate the page:

<input type="radio" name="radiosGroup" checked="checked" value="1" />

This way one of the radios will always be selected.

---

Using HTML5, you can use the required attribute on input elements (except button inputs) to skip JS validation for modern browsers. Fiddle

---

Finally, if all your input/textarea/checkbox/radios are inside of a form, you can use jQuery’s .serialize() to generate a query string instead of building it manually. And if they aren’t inside of a form, you can wrap them inside of one.

$('#myForm').serialize();

Fiddle

---

And as already commented in the question, JS validation is just to provide a better UI (e.g. showing errors without refreshing the page), you need server-side validation if you’re making your site public as JS can be easily bypassed.

---

One more side-note, assuming your inputs are inside of a form, it’s better to attach your validation to the form’s .submit() handler than on a button click, to ensure that your validation will be fired whenever the form is submitted independently of browser or user clicking in the submit button or pressing Enter in a text input element.