Rails - Aug 2006 - Plugins: Validation Reflection and Client-Side Validation

I''ve just put two plugins on RubyForge. Included below are the READMEs.
You can get the plugins at

svn://rubyforge.org//var/svn/valirefl/validation_reflection/trunk
svn://rubyforge.org//var/svn/clientsidevali/client_side_validation/trunk

Michael


Validation Reflection
====================
Version 0.2, 2006-08-06

This plugin adds reflective access to validations

 - ModelClass.reflect_on_all_validations
 - ModelClass.reflect_on_validations_for(:property)


= Deprecation Notice

Version 0.1 had supplied three methods

 - validates_presence_of_mandatory_content_columns
 - validates_lengths_of_string_attributes
 - validates_all_associated
  
These have been removed. Please use the Enforce Schema Rules plugin 
instead

  
http://enforce-schema-rules.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/enforce_schema_rules/


Client Side Validation
=====================
Version 0.2, 2006-08-06

Requires Validation Reflection plugin.

This plugin is only a tool, it leaves some work for you to do.
The plugin happily handles the validation part, but it is your
job to handle the notification.

Let''s look at the simplest case first.
In public/javascripts/application.js put:

  Form.Validator.installForAllValidatedForms();

This installs a validator for each form on the page which has the 
class "validated". If any of the form''s input elements are or
become
invalid, they are marked with the class "invalid". If you have 
something like this

 .invalid {
   border: 1px solid #f00;
 }

somewhere in your stylesheet(s), invalid fields will be marked with
a read border. This works for 

 * :validates_presence_of
 * :validates_length_of
 * :validates_numericality_of
 * :validates_inclusion_of
 * :validates_format_of - as far as regular expressions are matched the 
    same in Ruby and JavaScript


== Localization

Without further doing, the validator is not set up to handle any
specific locale. For instance, dates assumed to be in ISO 8601 format,
say 2006-08-13. To make the validator handle a specific locale, you
need to load a JavaScript file with validators for that locale. Put

 <%= javascript_include_tag ''validators-en'' %>

as the last javascript_include_tag in your layout. Currently, there
are validators-en and validators-de. And all they do is handle the
different date formats.


== Custom Checking

If you need client-side validations that can''t be expressed with these
means, you''ll have to write a validation function yourself.
Again in application.js

 Object.extend(Form.Validator.Validators, {
   very_special: function(value) {
     // Leave the check if there actually is a value to the
     // validation function set up for :validates_presence_of.
     if (!this.value) {
       return true;
     }
     // Do the ckecking...
     return true;
   }
 });
 
Then, in a view where a text field (or whatever it is) needs to be
subject to this very special test

 <%= text_field :object, :attribute, :class =>
''very_special'' %>

That''s it.

=== Complicated Checks

The declarative wiring of validation functions can be used for 
functions that need to take into account the values of multiple
input elements. Writing these functions is a bit tricky. If you
really need such a thing, look at the code for 
<tt>Form.Validator.Validators#exactly</tt> and
<tt>Form.Validator.Validators#different</tt>.


== Notifying Users of Validation Results

 Form.Validator.install(''person_form'', {
   onElementStatusChange: {
     person_last_name: function(isValid) {
       if (!isValid) alert(this.value + " is not a valid last name.");
     },
   },
   onFormStatusChange: function(isValid) {
     if (!isValid) alert("Your form is not valid!");
   }
 });

If you provide your own +onElementStatusChange+ function for reporting
a status change, this overrides the default behavior of adding/removing
the "invalid" class to the input element. You can explicitly invoke
that behavior like this

     person_last_name: function(isValid) {
       Form.Validator.switchClassNameInvalid(this, isValid);
       if (!isValid) alert(this.value + " is not a valid last name.");
     },

Obviously, just popping up an alert box or putting a border around an
element isn''t very user friendly. Especially so for a validator like 
this that checks continuously. Therefore you need to come up with a
way to notify your users of errors in a way that meshes well with the
rest of the application.


Currently, there is no way to find out which specific validation failed
for a given input element. As validations don''t have any identifiert
I''m hard pressed for a good idea.

-- 
Michael Schuerig
mailto:michael@schuerig.de
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/

Has anyone used this plugin?
I have installed both validation_reflection and client_side_validation,
added class="validated" to my form,
Form.Validator.installForAllValidatedForms( ); in application.js,
.invalid { ... } in stylesheet.
In IE 6, when I load the page I get ''object doesn''t support
this
property ...''. In FF no error. But in both I can submit the form with
erros, no javascript alert or smt...

Do you know another plugin for client side validation?




Michael Schuerig wrote:
> I''ve just put two plugins on RubyForge. Included below are the
READMEs.
> You can get the plugins at
> 
> svn://rubyforge.org//var/svn/valirefl/validation_reflection/trunk
> svn://rubyforge.org//var/svn/clientsidevali/client_side_validation/trunk
> 
> Michael
> 
> 
> Validation Reflection
> ====================> 
> Version 0.2, 2006-08-06
> 
> This plugin adds reflective access to validations
> 
>  - ModelClass.reflect_on_all_validations
>  - ModelClass.reflect_on_validations_for(:property)
> 
> 
> = Deprecation Notice
> 
> Version 0.1 had supplied three methods
> 
>  - validates_presence_of_mandatory_content_columns
>  - validates_lengths_of_string_attributes
>  - validates_all_associated
> 
> These have been removed. Please use the Enforce Schema Rules plugin
> instead
> 
> 
> http://enforce-schema-rules.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/enforce_schema_rules/
> 
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

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On Monday 06 November 2006 01:36, George wrote:
> Has anyone used this plugin?
Yes, me... but I''m the author. Are you using the latest version? There 
was a small error in a previous version that didn''t load the 
locale-specific validation functions.
> I have installed both validation_reflection and
> client_side_validation, added class="validated" to my form,
> Form.Validator.installForAllValidatedForms( ); in application.js,
> .invalid { ... } in stylesheet.
> In IE 6, when I load the page I get ''object doesn''t
support this
> property ...''. In FF no error. But in both I can submit the form
with
> erros, no javascript alert or smt...
As far as my own experience goes, client-side validation works in 
Firefox, IE6, and Konqueror. The fault I mentioned above may well be 
what''s causing the problems you''re seeing.

Michael

-- 
Michael Schuerig
mailto:michael-q5aiKMLteq4b1SvskN2V4Q@public.gmane.org
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/

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