Question

this is not working and i cant really see anything wrong with it, looks straightforward enough:

            $("#formLogin").submit(function(){
                var username = $("#username").val();
                var password = $("#password").val();
                if (username == ' ' || password == ' '){
                    return false;
                }
                else return true;
            });

EDIT:

Its still submitting the form even if the fields are empty

Answer 1

Are you trying to detect blank usernames and passwords?

  $("#formLogin").submit(function(){
            var username = $("#username").val();
            var password = $("#password").val();
            if (jquery.trim(username) == '' || jquery.trim(password) == ''){
                return false;
            }
            else return true;
        });

jquery.trim() removes leading and trailing spaces, so just in case the user types a number of space characters it will be detected.