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The framework adds support for client-side validation on top of the standard validation framework.
Client-side validation can be enabled on a per-form basis by specifying validate="true" in the form tag.
<s:form name="test" action="javascriptValidation" validate="true"> ... </s:form>
If a name for the form is not given, the action mapping name will be used as the form name. Otherwise, a correct action and namespace attributes must be provided to the <saf:form> tag.
<s:form namespace="/user" action="submitProfile" validate="true"> ... </s:form>
Technically, the form's action attribute can refer to a “path” that includes the namespace and action as a URI. But, client-side validation requires that the action name and namespeact to be set separately.
<s:form action="/user/submitProfile.action" validate="true"> ... </s:form>
All the usual validation configuration steps apply to client-side validation. Client-side validation uses the same validation rules as server-side validation. If server-side validation doesn‘t work, then client-side validation won’t work either.
The required attribute on many Struts Tags is not integrated with client-side validation! The tag attribute is used by certain themes (like xhtml) to put a visual marker (usually ‘*’) next to the field. The tag doesn't know if the validation system actually “requires” the field or not.
See Client Validation example for a complete example of client-side validation.
There are two styles of client side validation.
| Pure JavaScript Client Side Validation | Used by the xhtml theme and css_xhtml theme |
|---|---|
| AJAX Client Side Validation | Use to used by the ajax theme |