jquery validation plugin and check unique field? - php

Question

I am currently using jQuery validation plugin with cakephp in my new project.
It's working perfectly untill I need to make unique check to email field through ajax to check with the database..
I didn't know how to make the plugin make a unique validation to email from db.
thanx

Answer 1

I reckon you are refering to using an AJAX call (via the plugin) to check for unique email with the server, yea?
I would suggest using the addMethod of the validation plugin to create a custom validation in which you can make an AJAX call (which will be part of the jQuery core).
There's an SO post on this topic which you can explore:
JQuery Validate Plugin - How to create a simple, custom rule?
Do note that you will have to implement the server-side script yourself.
Here's another article which should be useful (using jQuery and PHP):
Check email already exist – Ajax – Jquery

Answer 2

The syntax is simple
$.validator.addMethod("eventName",
function(value, element) {
// condition returns true or false
}, "Error message to display");
});
Event name is called in the form
<input type="text" name="name" class="eventName" />
Refer this link if any more doubts
jQuery Validate Plugin - How to create a simple custom rule?

Answer 3

If you want to check if the email is unique you can use remote rule.
It is from: http://jqueryvalidation.org/remote-method
Example: Makes the email field required, an email and does a remote request to check if the given address is already taken.
$( "#myform" ).validate({
rules: {
email: {
required: true,
email: true,
remote: "check-email.php"
}
}
});
Example: Makes the email field required, an email and does a remote request to check if the given address is already taken. In addition, the http method is set to “post” and the username is sent alongside the email address.
$( "#myform" ).validate({
rules: {
email: {
required: true,
email: true,
remote: {
url: "check-email.php",
type: "post",
data: {
username: function() {
return $( "#username" ).val();
}
}
}
}
}
});

Answer 4

Try something like
$.validator.addMethod("unique",
function(value, element, params) {
var isUnique = false;
if(value == '')
return isUnique;
id_send= '';
if(params[1] !='')
id_send ='id='+params[1]+'&';
$.ajax({
url: "path"+params[2],
type : 'GET',
async: false,
data: id_send+'field=' + params[0] + "&value=" + value,
dataType: 'json',
cache: true,
success: function(data){
isUnique = data;
}
});
return isUnique;
},
jQuery.validator.format("Value already in use")
);
In the above code:
path is the root path of your application;
params[0] is the name of attribute to check unique;
params[1] is the id of the object, if you want to check in edit too, so exclude himself;
params[2] is the path to the php file that gonna check.
Resulting in something like:
rules:
{
email: {
required: true,
unique:['email', $('#user_id').val(),'uniqueemail.php'],
email: true
},
The PHP uniqueemail.php, search for the value in field email, if return empty or the user with id equals $('#user_id').val() so return true, else return false.
Note that the async attribute is set false, this is a set back but is gonna do the job.