Server side validation with dependent editor fields

lincolncbennett

Hi Allan, further to this question https://datatables.net/forums/discussion/63624/apply-validation-to-many-fields I am also using dependent fields in my form for example in the code below I have the fields 'importtest.CurrentMarriageSpouseFamilyName' and 'importtest.PreviousMarriageSpouseFamilyName'.

->on( 'preEdit', function ( $editor, $id, $values ) {

        if ( $values['importtest']['task_status'] > '3') {
 
    $fieldNames = ['importtest.FamilyName', 'importtest.FamilyNameAtBirth', 'importtest.CurrentMarriageSpouseFamilyName', 'importtest.PreviousMarriageSpouseFamilyName' ];
 
     for ( $i=0; $i<count($fieldNames); $i++) {
     $editor->field($fieldNames[$i])

      //not empty
              ->validator( Validate::notEmpty( ValidateOptions::inst()
                ->message( 'A Family name is required' )
               ) )
             //not more that 70 characters
            ->validator( function ( $val, $data, $field, $host ) {
               return strlen( $val ) > 70 ?
            'Family name length must be 70 characters or less' :
            true; 
             } )
            //no numbers, lowercase 
            ->validator( function ( $val, $data, $field, $host ) {
               return preg_match('/^(([A-Z\'][A-Z \' -]*[A-Z\'])|([A-Z\']+))$/', $val) < 1 ?
            'Family name must not contain numbers, must be in capital letters, and can only accept apostrophies, dashes, and spaces' :
            true; 
             } );
}

Of course the 'importtest.PreviousMarriageSpouseFamilyName' field is only required if a previous marriage occurred so I am using editors dependent field option in the form to hide it unless a drop down field value equals the required value to show it.

 editor.dependent( [ 'importtest.NumberOfAdditionalMarriages'], function ( val ) {
      
       if  (editor.field('importtest.NumberOfAdditionalMarriages').val() == '1')

        {
          editor.field ('importtest.PreviousMarriageSpouseFamilyName').show();
         
        }
             return {};
   } );

When the 'importtest.PreviousMarriageSpouseFamilyName' field is hidden in editor it will still trigger the validation error which I understand is normal. I could include an aditonal if statement on the PreEdit function to detect if the dependent field is required or not, but I'm just wondering if there is a better way to do this?

allan

What you describe is the way I would suggest doing it - check to see if the validator is needed or not based on the other data in the row submitted, and then validate it if needed.

Allan