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Technique SCR32:Providing client-side validation and adding error text via the DOM

Applicability

Script used with HTML or XHTML.

This technique relates to:

Description

The objective of this technique is to demonstrate the display of an error message when client side validation of a form field has failed. Anchor elements are used to display the error messages in a list and are inserted above the fields to be validated. Anchor elements are used in the error messages so that focus can be placed on the error message(s), drawing the user's attention to it. The href of the anchor elements contain an in-page link which references the fields where error(s) have been found.

In a deployed application, if Javascript is turned off, client side validation will not occur. Therefore, this technique would only be sufficient in situations where scripting is relied upon for conformance or when server side validation techniques are also used to catch any errors and return the page with information about the fields with errors.

Examples

Example 1

This example validates required fields as well as fields where a specific format is required. When an error is identified, the script inserts a list of error messages into the DOM and moves focus to them.

Screenshot showing the error messages for several fields that were not filled out correctly. Error messages appear as a list of links near the top of the form.

HTML and Javascript code

Here is the HTML for the example form: 

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "https://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Form Validation</title>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
        <link href="css/validate.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
        <script type="text/javascript" src="scripts/validate.js"/>
    </head>
    <body>

        <h1>Form Validation</h1>

        <p>The following form is validated before being submitted if scripting is available,
            otherwise the form is validated on the server. All fields are required, except those
            marked optional. If errors are found in the submission, the form is cancelled and 
            a list of errors is displayed at the top of the form.</p>

        <p> Please enter your details below. </p>

        <h2>Validating Form</h2>

        <form id="personalform" method="post" action="index.php">
            <div class="validationerrors"/>
            <fieldset>
                <legend>Personal Details</legend>
                <p>
                    <label for="forename">Please enter your forename</label>
                    <input type="text" size="20" name="forename" id="forename" class="string"
                        value=""/>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <label for="age">Please enter your age</label>
                    <input type="text" size="20" name="age" id="age" class="number" value=""/>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <label for="email">Please enter your email address</label>
                    <input type="text" size="20" name="email" id="email" class="email" value=""/>
                </p>
            </fieldset>
            <p>
                <input type="submit" name="signup" value="Sign up"/>
            </p>
        </form>
        <h2>Second Form</h2>
        <form id="secondform" method="post" action="index.php#focuspoint">
            <div class="validationerrors"/>
            <fieldset>
                <legend>Second Form Details</legend>
                <p>
                    <label for="suggestion">Enter a suggestion</label>
                    <input type="text" size="20" name="suggestion" id="suggestion" 
                      class="string" value=""/>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <label for="optemail">Please enter your email address (optional)</label>
                    <input type="text" size="20" name="optemail" id="optemail"
                        class="optional email" value=""/>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <label for="rating">Please rate this suggestion</label>
                    <input type="text" size="20" name="rating" id="rating" 
                      class="number" value=""/>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <label for="jibberish">Enter some jibberish (optional)</label>
                    <input type="text" size="20" name="jibberish" id="jibberish" value=""/>
                </p>

            </fieldset>
            <p>
                <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Add Suggestion"/>
            </p>
        </form>
    </body>
</html>

Here is the Javascript which performs the validation and inserts the error messages: 

window.onload = initialise;

function initialise()
{
   var objForms = document.getElementsByTagName('form');
   var iCounter;

   // Attach an event handler for each form
   for (iCounter=0; iCounter<objForms.length; iCounter++)
   {
      objForms[iCounter].onsubmit = function(){return validateForm(this);};
   }
}


// Event handler for the form
function validateForm(objForm)
{
   var arClass = [];
   var iErrors = 0;
   var objField = objForm.getElementsByTagName('input');
   var objLabel = objForm.getElementsByTagName('label');
   var objList = document.createElement('ol');
   var objError, objExisting, objNew, objTitle, objParagraph, objAnchor, objPosition;
   var strLinkID, iFieldCounter, iClassCounter, iCounter;

   // Get the id or name of the form, to make a unique
   // fragment identifier
   if (objForm.id)
   {
      strLinkID = objForm.id + 'ErrorID';
   }
   else
   {
      strLinkID = objForm.name + 'ErrorID';
   }

   // Iterate through input form controls, looking for validation classes
   for (iFieldCounter=0; iFieldCounter<objField.length; iFieldCounter++)
   {
      // Get the class for the field, and look for the appropriate class
      arClass = objField[iFieldCounter].className.split(' ');
      for (iClassCounter=0; iClassCounter<arClass.length; iClassCounter++)
      {
         switch (arClass[iClassCounter])
         {
            case 'string':
               if (!isString(objField[iFieldCounter].value, arClass))
               {
                  if (iErrors === 0)
                  {
                     logError(objField[iFieldCounter], objLabel, objList, strLinkID);
                  }
                  else
                  {
                     logError(objField[iFieldCounter], objLabel, objList, '');
                  }
                  iErrors++;
               }
               break;
            case 'number':
               if (!isNumber(objField[iFieldCounter].value, arClass))
               {
                  if (iErrors === 0)
                  {
                     logError(objField[iFieldCounter], objLabel, objList, strLinkID);
                  }
                  else
                  {
                     logError(objField[iFieldCounter], objLabel, objList, '');
                  }
                  iErrors++;
               }
               break;

            case 'email' :
               if (!isEmail(objField[iFieldCounter].value, arClass))
               {
                  if (iErrors === 0)
                  {
                     logError(objField[iFieldCounter], objLabel, objList, strLinkID);
                  }
                  else
                  {
                     logError(objField[iFieldCounter], objLabel, objList, '');
                  }
                  iErrors++;
               }
               break;
         }
      }
   }

   if (iErrors > 0)
   {
      // If not valid, display error messages
      objError = objForm.getElementsByTagName('div');
      
      // Look for existing errors
      for (iCounter=0; iCounter<objError.length; iCounter++)
      {
         if (objError[iCounter].className == 'validationerrors')
         {
            objExisting = objError[iCounter];
         }
      }

      objNew = document.createElement('div');
      objTitle = document.createElement('h2');
      objParagraph = document.createElement('p');
      objAnchor = document.createElement('a');

      if (iErrors == 1)
      {
         objAnchor.appendChild(document.createTextNode('1 Error in Submission'));
      }
      else
      {
         objAnchor.appendChild(document.createTextNode(iErrors + ' Errors in Submission'));
      }
      objAnchor.href = '#' + strLinkID;
      objAnchor.className = 'submissionerror';

      objTitle.appendChild(objAnchor);
      objParagraph.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Please review the following'));
      objNew.className = 'validationerrors';

      objNew.appendChild(objTitle);
      objNew.appendChild(objParagraph);
      objNew.appendChild(objList);
      
      // If there were existing error, replace them with the new lot,
      // otherwise add the new errors to the start of the form
      if (objExisting)
      {
         objExisting.parentNode.replaceChild(objNew, objExisting);
      }
      else
      {
         objPosition = objForm.firstChild;
         objForm.insertBefore(objNew, objPosition);
      }

      // Allow for latency
      setTimeout(function() { objAnchor.focus(); }, 50);
      
      // Don't submit the form
      objForm.submitAllowed = false;
      return false;
   }

   // Submit the form
   return true;
}

// Function to add a link in a list item that points to problematic field control
function addError(objList, strError, strID, strErrorID)
{
   var objListItem = document.createElement('li');
   var objAnchor = document.createElement('a');
   
   // Fragment identifier to the form control
   objAnchor.href='#' + strID;

   // Make this the target for the error heading
   if (strErrorID.length > 0)
   {
      objAnchor.id = strErrorID;
   }

   // Use the label prompt for the error message
   objAnchor.appendChild(document.createTextNode(strError));
   // Add keyboard and mouse events to set focus to the form control
   objAnchor.onclick = function(event){return focusFormField(this, event);};
   objAnchor.onkeypress = function(event){return focusFormField(this, event);};
   objListItem.appendChild(objAnchor);
   objList.appendChild(objListItem);
}

function focusFormField(objAnchor, objEvent)
{
   var strFormField, objForm;

   // Allow keyboard navigation over links
   if (objEvent && objEvent.type == 'keypress')
   {
      if (objEvent.keyCode != 13 && objEvent.keyCode != 32)
      {
         return true;
      }
   }

   // set focus to the form control
   strFormField = objAnchor.href.match(/[^#]\w*$/);
   objForm = getForm(strFormField);
   objForm[strFormField].focus();
   return false;
}

// Function to return the form element from a given form field name
function getForm(strField)
{
   var objElement = document.getElementById(strField);

   // Find the appropriate form
   do
   {
      objElement = objElement.parentNode;
   } while (!objElement.tagName.match(/form/i) && objElement.parentNode);

   return objElement;
}

// Function to log the error in a list
function logError(objField, objLabel, objList, strErrorID)
{
   var iCounter, strError;

   // Search the label for the error prompt
   for (iCounter=0; iCounter<objLabel.length; iCounter++)
   {
      if (objLabel[iCounter].htmlFor == objField.id)
      {
         strError = objLabel[iCounter].firstChild.nodeValue;
      }
   }

   addError(objList, strError, objField.id, strErrorID);
}

// Validation routines - add as required

function isString(strValue, arClass)
{
   var bValid = (typeof strValue == 'string' && strValue.replace(/^\s*|\s*$/g, '') 
     !== '' && isNaN(strValue));

   return checkOptional(bValid, strValue, arClass);
}

function isEmail(strValue, arClass)
{
   var objRE = /^[\w-\.\']{1,}\@([\da-zA-Z\-]{1,}\.){1,}[\da-zA-Z\-]{2,}$/;
   var bValid = objRE.test(strValue);

   return checkOptional(bValid, strValue, arClass);
}

function isNumber(strValue, arClass)
{
   var bValid = (!isNaN(strValue) && strValue.replace(/^\s*|\s*$/g, '') !== '');

   return checkOptional(bValid, strValue, arClass);
}

function checkOptional(bValid, strValue, arClass)
{
   var bOptional = false;
   var iCounter;

   // Check if optional
   for (iCounter=0; iCounter<arClass.length; iCounter++)
   {
      if (arClass[iCounter] == 'optional')
      {
         bOptional = true;
      }
   }

   if (bOptional && strValue.replace(/^\s*|\s*$/g, '') === '')
   {
      return true;
   }

   return bValid;
   }

Working example of this technique implemented using PHP, Javascript, CSS and XHTML: Form Validation Example.

Tests

Procedure

Create error messages using anchor tags and appropriate scripting via the technique above.

  1. Load the page.
  2. Enter a valid value in the field(s) associated with an error message and verify that no error messages are displayed.
  3. Enter an invalid value in the field(s) associated with an error message and verify that the correct error message for the field is displayed.
  4. Verify that the error messages receive focus.
  5. Enter a valid value in the field(s) associated with the displayed error message and verify that the error message is removed.
  6. Repeat for all fields with associated error messages created via anchor tags.

It is recommended that you also run the above procedure using an assistive technology.

Expected Results

  • Checks #2, #3, #4, and #5 are all true.
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