Question

I need to validate a form that uses hidden inputs for a set of values that get created dynamically. These hidden inputs don’t exist on an empty form but I want to ensure that at least one is created before the form can be submitted.

The validator plugin requires an existing element to attach a rule to it. Is there anyway way to attach a rule to a selector or something similar that would test if an element exists?

The only other option I can think of is to use the submit handler to perform secondary validation.

I’m binding the rules like this:

 var elements = $("#" + formId + ' [name=\"' + name + '\"]');
        if(elements.length > 0){
            elements.each(function(i){
                $(this).rules("add", {
                    required: true
                });
            });
        }

So there’s no real way to add a rule to an element that doesn’t exist yet. I can (and do) add a rule when the element is created dynamically, but how do I test if that element hasn’t been created?

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

In what way do you attach these rules exactly? Without knowing what’s going on, it’s hard to answer your question.

Maybe you can just attach a validator rule to the body element, or to the form element and check the following?

$('[yourSelector]').length > 0

Also, I would imagine that you can create a stub div element and attach to that.