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up vote 4 down vote favorite

I've got a form that needs validating before the data in the form is added to a service queue:

self.ee.on('validateForm', function(formData){

            // Validation
            var isValid = false;
            var validTitle = false;
            var validDescription = false;
            var validObjectives = false;
            var validOutcome = false;
            var validHours = false;

            if(formData.title==null){
                console.log("error on title")
                isValid = false;
            }
            else{
                validTitle = true;
                console.log("title is valid");
            }

            if(formData.description==null){
                console.log("error on description")
                isValid = false;
            }
            else{
                validDescription = true;
                console.log("description is valid");
            }

            if(formData.objectives==null){
                console.log("error on objectives")
                isValid = false;
            }
            else{
                validObjectives = true;
                console.log("objectives is valid");
            }

            if(formData.outcome==null){
                console.log("error on outcome")
                isValid = false;
            }
            else{
                validOutcome = true;
                console.log("outcome is valid");
            }

            if(formData.hours== null){
                console.log("Error on hours")
                isValid = false;

            }
            else{
                validHours = true;
                console.log("hours is valid");
            }

            if(validTitle && validDescription && validObjectives && validOutcome && validHours){
                isValid = true;
            }


            if (isValid) {
                self.ee.emit('formIsValid', formData);
            } else {
                self.ee.emit('formIsInvalid', formData);
            }
        });

It works fine, if all the conditions are met it passes onto my formisvalid function, which creates the message and adds and it to the service queue fine.

Is there a nicer/better way of doing the above?

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Aug 5 '14 at 12:21

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

3 Answers 3

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Since you are only checking all of your fields against null, you could add the field names to an array and then loop through the array.

var isValid = true;
var fields  = ['title', 'description', 'objectives', 'outcome', 'hours'];

for ( var i = 0, n = fields.length; i < n; i++ ) {
    key = fields[i];
    if ( formData[key] == null ) {
        console.log("error on " + key);
        isValid = false;
    } else {
        console.log(key + " is valid");
    }
}
share|improve this answer
    
Thanks for your comment, this is the way I went with :) I would up vote but I am lacking the rep –  BenYeomans Aug 5 '14 at 12:35
up vote 2 down vote

You can use a library to help you with form validations. In general they are well-tested, with several types of validation built in and with a nice syntax and/or non-invasive way using it.

I can cite two libs that I have used in my projects, both are based on jQuery:

http://jqueryvalidation.org/

http://formvalidator.net/

An example using jQuery Form Validator (second link):

<form action="/registration" method="POST">
   <p>
      Name (4 characters minimum):
      <input name="user" data-validation="length" data-validation-length="min4">
   </p>
   <p>
      Year (yyyy-mm-dd):
      <input name="birth" data-validation="date" data-validation-format="yyyy-mm-dd">
   </p>
   <p>
      Website:
      <input name="website" data-validation="url">
   </p>
   <p>
      <input type="submit">
   </p>
</form>

You can see that it uses the attribute data-validation to define which type of validation should operate on the field, and data-validation-XXX to define validation parameters.

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up vote 0 down vote

You could remove

if(validTitle && validDescription && validObjectives && validOutcome && validHours){
            isValid = true;
}

and all occurrences of validTitle, validDescription, validObjectives, validOutcome, validHours and initialize isValid = true; at the beginning of your code.

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