BootstrapValidator

A jQuery plugin to validate form fields. Use with Bootstrap 3

Features

• Built from scratch. The code is solid and clean
• 17 built-in validators
• Cannot find the validator you need? Don't worry, it is easy to write new validator
• Show feedback icons based on field validity
• Support Ajax in both validator and form submission

Required

• jQuery
• Bootstrap 3

Demo

You can see the live demo here:

• Sample demo
• Validator examples
• Custom submit handler

Install

You can download the latest version or use bower to install BootstrapValidator:

$ bower install bootstrapValidator

Usage

The plugin has two versions:

• The source one placed in src/js directory which is not compressed and doesn't include any validators. It is used in case you want to debug or develop new validator.
• The compressed one placed in dist/js directory which includes all validators. It should be used in the production site.

Since the BootstrapValidator plugin requires jQuery and Bootstrap 3, you have to include the required CSS and JS files to your page:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/path/to/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.css"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/path/to/dist/js/bootstrapValidator.min.css"/>

<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/jquery/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/bootstrap/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

// Either use the compressed version (recommended in the production site)
<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/dist/js/bootstrapValidator.min.js"></script>

// Or use the original one with all validators included
<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/dist/js/bootstrapValidator.js"></script>

// Or use the plugin with required validators
<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/src/js/bootstrapValidator.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/src/js/validator/...validator..."></script>

Call the plugin to validate the form as following:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $(<form Selector>).bootstrapValidator({
        message: 'This value is not valid',
        columns: 12,
        feedbackIcons: null,
        submitButtons: 'button[type="submit"]',
        submitHandler: null,
        live: 'enabled',
        fields: ...
    });
});

message: The default error message for all fields. You can specify the error message for any fields

columns: The number of grid columns. Change it if you use custom grid with different number of columns

feedbackIcons: Show valid/invalid/validating icons based on the field validity.

This feature requires Bootstrap v3.1.0 or later. Since Bootstrap doesn't provide any methods to know its version, this option cannot be on/off automatically. In other word, to use this feature you have to upgrade your Bootstrap to v3.1.0 or later.

It supports Glyphicons (included in Bootstrap):

feedbackIcons: {
    valid: 'glyphicon glyphicon-ok',
    invalid: 'glyphicon glyphicon-remove',
    validating: 'glyphicon glyphicon-refresh'
}

and FontAwesome icons (don't forget to insert FontAwesome CSS in your head):

feedbackIcons: {
    valid: 'fa fa-check',
    invalid: 'fa fa-times',
    validating: 'fa fa-refresh'
}

submitButtons: The submit buttons selector. These buttons will be disabled when the form input are invalid

submitHandler: Custom submit handler.

submitHandler: function(validator, form, submitButton) {
}

The handler has three arguments:

• validator is the instance of BootstrapValidator
• form is jQuery object representing the current form
• submitButton is jQuery object representing the submit button which is clicked

This option is useful when you want to use Ajax to submit the form data:

submitHandler: function(validator, form, submitButton) {
    // Use Ajax to submit form data
    $.post(form.attr('action'), form.serialize(), function(result) {
        // ... process the result ...
    }, 'json');
}

By default, submitHandler is null

live: Live validating. Can be one of 3 values:

• enabled: The plugin validates fields as soon as they are changed
• disabled: Disable the live validating. The error messages are only shown after the form is submitted
• submitted: The live validating is enabled after the form is submitted

fields: The fields which need to be validated

fields: {
    ...
    // The field name
    // It is value of the name attribute
    <fieldName>: {
        // The default error message for this field
        message: ...,

        // Array of validators
        validators: {
            ...
            <validatorName>: <validatorOptions>
            ...
        }
    }
    ...
}

The <validatorName> can be the name of the built-in validator which are described in the Validators section

Validators

Below is the list of built-in validators sorted in alphabetical order:

Validator name	Description
between	Check if the input value is between (strictly or not) two given numbers
callback	Return the validity from a callback method
choice	Check if the number of checked boxes are less or more than a given number
creditCard	Validate a credit card number
different	Return true if the input value is different with given field's value
digits	Return true if the value contains only digits
emailAddress	Validate an email address
greaterThan	Return true if the value is greater than or equals to given number
hexColor	Validate a hex color
identical	Check if the value is the same as one of particular field
lessThan	Return true if the value is less than or equals to given number
notEmpty	Check if the value is empty
regexp	Check if the value matches given Javascript regular expression
remote	Perform remote checking via Ajax request
stringLength	Validate the length of a string
uri	Validate an URL address
zipCode	Validate a zip code

The validator options are described in the following section:

(The options marked with * are required)

between validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
min (*)	n/a	The lower value in the range
max (*)	n/a	The upper value in the range
inclusive	true	Can be true or false. If true, the input value must be in the range strictly

callback validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
callback (*)	n/a	The callback method

The callback method must follow the format below:

function(fieldValue, validator) {
    // fieldValue is the value of field
    // validator is instance of BootstrapValidator

    // Check the field validity
    // return true or false
}

choice validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
min	n/a	The minimum number of check boxes required to be checked
max	n/a	The maximum number of check boxes required to be checked. At least one of min and max is required

different validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
field (*)	n/a	The name of field that will be used to compare with current one

greaterThan validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
value (*)	n/a	The number to make a comparison to
inclusive	false	Can be true or false
		If true, the input value must be greater than the comparison one
		If false, the input value must be greater than or equal to the comparison one

identical validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
field (*)	n/a	The name of field that will be used to compare with current one

lessThan validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
value (*)	n/a	The number to make a comparison to
inclusive	false	Can be true or false
		If true, the input value must be less than the comparison one
		If false, the input value must be less than or equal to the comparison one

regexp validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
regexp (*)	n/a	The Javascript regular expression

remote validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
url (*)	n/a	The remote URL that responses an encoded JSON of array containing the valid key
data	{ fieldName: fieldValue}	The data sent to remote URL

It also supports dynamic data which is returned by a function:

remote: {
    url: 'remote.php',
    data: function(validator) {
        // validator is the plugin instance

        // Returns an object which is used to send to remote URL
        // For example, the sample code below posts the username to remote URL:
        //  return {
        //      username: validator.getFieldElements('username').val()
        //  };
    }
}

stringLength validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
min	n/a	The minimum length
max	n/a	The maximum length. One of min, max options is required

zipCode validator

Option name	Default	Description
message	n/a	The error message
country	US	A ISO 3166 country code. Currently it supports the following countries: US (United State), DK (Denmark), SE (Sweden)

API

validate

validate(): Validate form manually. It is useful when you want to validate form by clicking a button or a link instead of a submit buttons.

$(form).bootstrapValidator(options).bootstrapValidator('validate');

// or
var validator = $(form).bootstrapValidator(options);
validator.validate();

isValid

isValid(): Returns true if all form fields are valid. Otherwise, returns false.

Ensure that the validate method is already called after calling this one.

resetForm

resetForm(resetFormData): Reset form. It hides all error elements and feedback icons. All the fields are marked as not validated yet. If resetFormData is true, the method resets the form fields.

var validator = $(form).bootstrapValidator(options);
validator.resetForm();

Write new validator

If you develop new validator which might be useful to other, please fork and pull a new request. Then I will add it as a built-in validator

A validator has to follow the syntax:

(function($) {
    $.fn.bootstrapValidator.validators.<validatorName> = {
        /**
         * @param {BootstrapValidator} validator The validator plugin instance
         * @param {jQuery} $field The jQuery object represents the field element
         * @param {Object} options The validator options
         * @returns {boolean}
         */
        validate: function(validator, $field, options) {
            // You can get the field value
            // var value = $field.val();
            //
            // Perform validating
            // ...
            //
            // return true if the field value is valid
            // otherwise return false
        }
    };
}(window.jQuery));

<validatorName> is the validator name. Since the validators are distinct by the names, <validatorName> has to be different with built-in validators.

To apply the validator to particular field:

$(form).bootstrapValidator({
    fields: {
        <fieldName>: {
            // Replace <validatorName> with the name of validator
            // <validatorOptions> will be passed as third parameter of the
            // validate(validator, $field, options) method
            <validatorName>: <validatorOptions>
        }
    }
});

For Rails, the input field is constructed from model name and field name. For example, user have email as field, when form helper render view, the input field name will be 'user[email]'. The syntax for these is somewhat different as shown below:

$(form).bootstrapValidator({
    fields: {
        'user[email]': {
            // Replace <validatorName> with the name of validator
            // <validatorOptions> will be passed as third parameter of the
            // validate(validator, $field, options) method
            <validatorName>: <validatorOptions>
        }
    }
});

To see how built-in validators are developed, you can look at their sources located at the src/js/validator directory.

Build

BootstrapValidator uses grunt to simplify building process.

From the BootstrapValidator root directory, install dependencies:

$ npm install

Then, uses grunt to build:

$ grunt

If you want grunt to generate scripts whenever the original scripts (located in src) change, use the following command:

$ grunt watch

The generated scripts (including source and compressed versions) are placed inside the dist directory.

Release History

Look at the Change Log

Author

The BootstrapValidator plugin is written by Nguyen Huu Phuoc, aka @nghuuphuoc

• http://twitter.com/nghuuphuoc
• http://github.com/nghuuphuoc

Big thanks to the contributors:

• @emilchristensen
• @khangvm53
• @kristian-puccio
• @ikanedo
• @iplus
• @vaz
• ... might be you! Let's fork and pull a request!

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2013 - 2014 Nguyen Huu Phuoc

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in
the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of
the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.