jQuery validation code

Question

Would like some assistance in improving my jQuery validation code. I have some repeated code, but I am not sure how to write it in a way so that I don't have to keep repeating the same code over and over again for different variable names etc... (such as the if statement part) My goal is to make it so that I can easily apply it to any other form I create.

Here is the jsFiddle

(function($) {

    $('.commentForm').submit(function () {

        var error = 'error';

        var name = $(this).find('.name')
        nameVal = name.attr('value')
        email = $(this).find('.email')
        comment = $(this).find('textarea')
        commentVal = comment.html();

        if (!(name.val() === nameVal || name.val() === '' || name.val().length < 3) && 
            !(comment.val() === commentVal || comment.val() === '' || comment.val().length < 3) && 
            validateEmail(email.val())
           ) {
            console.log('Form is good');
            return true;
        } else {

            (name.val() === nameVal || name.val() === '' || name.val().length < 3) ? name.addClass(error) : name.removeClass(error);
            (comment.val() === commentVal || comment.val() === '' || comment.val().length < 3) ? comment.addClass(error) : comment.removeClass(error);
            (!validateEmail(email.val())) ? email.addClass(error) : email.removeClass(error);

            console.log('Form is BAD');
            return false;

        }

    });

    function validateEmail(email) {
        var re = /^(([^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+)*)|(\".+\"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/;
        return re.test(email);
    }

}) (jQuery);

Answer 1

This confuses me:

name.val() === nameVal

The variable nameVal is equal to the value attribute of name. And, the calling val() on name returns the value attribute of name so of course they are going to be equal.

I may be missing something here, but I think this is unnecessary.

---

Long chunks of mush like this:

(name.val() === nameVal || name.val() === '' || name.val().length < 3) ? name.addClass(error) : name.removeClass(error);
            (comment.val() === commentVal || comment.val() === '' || comment.val().length < 3) ? comment.addClass(error) : comment.removeClass(error);
            (!validateEmail(email.val())) ? email.addClass(error) : email.removeClass(error);

and this:

!(name.val() === nameVal || name.val() === '' || name.val().length < 3) && 
            !(comment.val() === commentVal || comment.val() === '' || comment.val().length < 3) && 
            validateEmail(email.val())

are in no way whatsoever readable. You need to either

• Break this up. Maybe everything here is not necessary.

• Split this into variables and check with the variables.

I think you should go with the first option, because these can be simplified:

---

1:

As I stated above, having

name.val() === nameVal

is unnecessary. You can just remove this.

---

2:

The value "" is called a falsey value. That means that "" can be treated as though it were false.

So, for example, this here:

name.val() === ''

can be reduced to:

!name.val()

---

Constantly calling the .val function on these elements in each of your conditionals is inefficient. You should store the result of .val() in a variable, and just use that for the conditionals (I think nameVal should already hold the .val() for name).

---

Now, for example, one of your conditional chunks becomes:

( !nameVal || nameVal.length < 3) ? name.addClass(error) : name.removeClass(error);

(! commentVal || commentVal.length < 3) ? comment.addClass(error) : comment.removeClass(error);

(!validateEmail(email.val())) ? email.addClass(error) : email.removeClass(error);

Where commentVal is comment.val() and nameVal is name.val()

Answer 2

You could replace your if block with:

(name.val() === nameVal || name.val() === '' || name.val().length < 3) ? name.addClass(error) : name.removeClass(error);
(comment.val() === commentVal || comment.val() === '' || comment.val().length < 3) ? comment.addClass(error) : comment.removeClass(error);
(!validateEmail(email.val())) ? email.addClass(error) : email.removeClass(error);

if(name.hasClass(error) || comment.hasClass(error) || email.hasClass(error))
{
    console.log('Form is BAD');
    return false;
}
else
{
    console.log('Form is good');
    return true;
}

This would run your validation logic once and then look for error classes on the objects