Generalized Form Validation

Validation Tags:

Tag format:

Start validation block...       v:Section:ValidationType:parameters

End validation block...         /v:Section:ValidationType:closing parameters

Validation Type can be one of the following values:

NoBlanks - Indicates that input control cannot be blank. This means that a group of radio buttons in the validation block needs to have a value selected, any text field or textarea must have something in it, and any select control must have a selected option where the value is not blank. Helpful when trying to make sure that all questions on a form have been answered.

parameters: "Failure Message" - a message that should be displayed if validation fails
closing parameters: None

<input name="valtag1" value="v:Section 1:NoBlanks:Question left unanswered" type=hidden>
     <input name="q1" value="1" type="radio">
     <input name="q1" value="2" type="radio">
     <input name="q1" value="3" type="radio">
     <input name="q2" type="text">
     <input name="q3" type="textarea">
<input name="endvaltag1" value="/v:Section 1:NoBlanks:" type=hidden>

CheckSum - Checks the sum of all form inputs within the validation block against a target sum. Any text field that contains a parsable float as its value, any radio button that is selected that has a parsable float as its value, and check boxes can all be summed.

If the parsing fails, then the value will be left out of the sum (see Parsable to ensure that text fields contain valid numbers.) Check boxes that have been set to true will add 1 to the sum. This can be useful for ensuring that a group of check boxes has the correct number of checks (ie... 1 or more, less than 3, exactly 5)

parameters: "Failure Message:evaluation expression"
   Failure Message - message to display when validation fails.
   evaluation expression - "evaluation expression" - boolean expression to evaluate, where true means that the validation block has passed. The keyword "sum" represents the sum of the fields in the validation block. (see examples)
closing parameters: None

<input name="valtag2" value="v:Section 2:CheckSum:Must be between 50 and 100:(sum<=100) && (sum >=50)" type=hidden>
     <input name="q4" type="text">
     <input name="q5" type="text">
<input name="endvaltag2" value="/v:Section 2:CheckSum" type=hidden>

<input name="valtag3" value="v:Section 2:CheckSum:Must check at least 1:sum >= 1" type=hidden>
     <input name="q6" type="check">
     <input name="q7" type="check">
<input name="endvaltag3" value="/v:Section 2:CheckSum:">

NoValidation - Overrides all validation checks. If a section is contained within this tag, no validation will be attempted.

parameters: None
closing parameters: None

<input name="valtag1" value="v:Section 1:RadioTouched:Question left unanswered" type=hidden>
     <input name="q1" value="1" type="radio">
     <input name="q1" value="2" type="radio">
     <input name="q1" value="3" type="radio">

     <input name="novaltag1" value="v:Section 1:NoValidation:">
         <input name="q2" type="text">
     <input name="endnovaltag1" value="/v:Section 1:NoValidation:">

     <input name="q3" type="textarea">
<input name="endvaltag1" value="/v:Section 1:RadioTouched:" type=hidden>

Parsable - Ensure that all fields within the validation block contain parsable values.

parameters: "Failure Message" - Message to display when validation fails.
closing parameters: None

<input name="parsable1" value="v:Section 2:Parsable:Must contain a number" type="hidden">

<input name="valtag2" value="v:Section 2:CheckSum:Must be between 50 and 100" type=hidden>
     <input name="q4" type="text">
     <input name="q5" type="text">
<input name="endvaltag2" value="/v:Section 2:CheckSum:(sum<=100) && (sum >=50)" type=hidden>

<input name="valtag3" value="v:Section 2:CheckSum:Must check at least 1" type=hidden>
     <input name="q6" type="check">
     <input name="q7" type="check">
<input name="endvaltag3" value="/v:Section 2:CheckSum:sum >= 1">

<input name="endparsable1" value="/v:Section 2:Parsable:" type="hidden">

Evaluation of Validation Tags:

1. Tags of different validation types can overlap. Overlapping tags of like validation types is currently undefined.
2. Presedence of validation types:
1. NoValidation
2. NoBlanks
3. Parsable
4. CheckSum
meaning that the form fields are checked in that order (ie... if a field fails the NoBlanks and the Parsable check, then the NoBlanks message will be displayed because it is before Parsable in the presedence chart.)
3. Different input types are validated differently. See Input Type Validation Mapping