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Introduction to ASP.NET Validation controls
Introduction
ASP.NET provides a set of web controls called validation
controls that are used to validate HTML forms. This article discusses various
types of validation controls available with code samples.
What are validation controls?
Most of the times while using HTML forms we need to validate the user input for certain
criteria. In ASP there was no other way but to write our own server or client side
validation routines. ASP+ frees the programmer from performing common validation tasks
through server side validation controls.
There are 6 types of validation controls available :
-
-
-
RegularExpressionValidator
-
One HTML or web control can have more than one validations attached to it.
Following sections illustrates how to perform most common validation tasks using these
controls
Using RequiredFieldValidator control
As the name suggests this control is used to validate fields that requires user input
i.e. the fields which are mandatory.
Consider following code snippet from a ASP+ page:
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<asp:textbox id="text1" runat="server" text="text1" />
<asp:button id="button1" runat="server" autopostback="true" />
<asp:requiredfieldvalidator id="valid1" runat="server"
controltovalidate="text1" errormessage= "Field is mandatory" /><BR></form>
If you run the page and try to submit the form with empty text box then you will see
the message provided in errorMessage property of the validation control displayed next to
the text box.
Note : the location of error message depends on where you have placed the
validation control in the page. It need not be immediately following the control to be
validated
Using CompareValidator control
This control is used to compare value of a control with :
value from another control or
Typical use of this control can be while validation old and new passwords.
Consider following code which illustrates the first case:
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<asp:textbox id="text1" runat="server" text="text1" />
<asp:textbox id="text2" runat="server" text="text2" />
<asp:button id="button1" runat="server" autopostback="true" />
<asp:comparevalidator id="valid1" runat="server"
controltovalidate= "text1"controltocompare="text2"
errormessage= "Field comparisn failed" /><BR></form>
Consider following code which illustrates the second case:
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<asp:textbox id="text1" runat="server" text="text1" />
<asp:textbox id="text2" runat="server" text="text2" />
<asp:button id="button1" runat="server" autopostback="true" />
<asp:comparevalidator id="valid1" runat="server"
controltovalidate="text1" valuetocompare= "valueto compare"
errormessage= "Field comparisn failed" /><BR></form>
Whenever the text from both the controls differ, you will see the error message
supplied.
Using RangeValidator control
Rangevalidator is used to ensure that the value of a control lies between the given
range
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<asp:textbox id="text1" runat="server" text="text1" />
<asp:textbox id="text2" runat="server" text="text2" />
<asp:button id="button1" runat="server" autopostback="true" />
<asp:rangevalidator id="valid1" runat="server"
controltovalidate= "text1"minimumvalue="10" maximumvalue="100"
errormessage= "Valueout of range" /><BR></form>
Using CustomValidator control
Even though above controls provide great deal of functionality, you may need some
customized validation not covered by in-built controls. Customvalidator control allows
such facility. Here, you specify a function which will be called by the customvalidator
control in order to determine weather the value entered in a control is valid or not. The
function must return true or false. The signature of the function must match following
syntax (in VB):
public function validate_function
(obj as object,str as string) as boolean
Consider following code :
<script language="vb" runat="server">
public function validate(obj as object, str as string) as boolean
if text2.text="aaa" then
return true
else
return false
end if
end function
</script>
<form id="form1" runat="server" >
<asp:textbox id="text1" runat="server" text="text1" />
<asp:textbox id="text2" runat="server" text="text2" />
<asp:button id="button1" runat="server" text="Click"
autopostback="true"/>
<asp:customvalidator id="valid1" runat="server"
controltovalidate="text2" onservervalidationfunction="validate"
errormessage="custom validation failed" />
</form>
Whenever the form is submitted the validation control invokes server side function
validate() which checks the value of text2 text box and returns true or false on certain
condition. If the function returns false then errormessage is displayed as usual.
Using ValidationSummary control
Validation summary control provides a nice way to display a list of all the validation
errors occurred in the form. The list can be presented as bulleted list or paragraph or
continuous text. This control do not perform validation of its own.
Consider following code :
<script language="vb" runat="server">
public function validate1(obj as object,str as string) as boolean
if text2.text="aaa" then
return true
else
return false
end if
end function
</script>
<form id="form1" runat="server" >
<asp:textbox id="text1" runat="server" text="text1" />
<asp:textbox id="text2" runat="server" text="text2" />
<asp:button id="button1" runat="server" text="Click"
autopostback="true"/>
<asp:requiredfieldvalidator id="valid1" runat="server"
controltovalidate="text1" errormessage="field required"
display="dynamic"/>
<asp:comparevalidator id="valid2" runat="server"
controltovalidate="text1" controltocompare="text2"
TYPE="STRING" errormessage="compare failed"
display="dynamic"/>
<asp:comparevalidator id="valid3" runat="server"
controltovalidate="text1" valuetocompare="10" TYPE="integer"
errormessage="value compare failed" display="dynamic"/>
<asp:rangevalidator id="valid4" runat="server"
controltovalidate="text1" minimumvalue="10"
maximumvalue="100" type="integer" errormessage="range
failed" />
<asp:customvalidator id="valid5" runat="server"
controltovalidate="text2" onservervalidationfunction="validate1"
errormessage="custom validation failed" />
<asp:validationsummary id="valid6" runat="server"
headertext="Following errors occurred" displaymode="bulletlist" />
</form>
Here, the headertext specifies title of the summary list and display mode determines
how the summary is displayed i.e. bulleted list, paragraph etc.
Checking validation status at page level
You can also check weather all the validations were successful or not using
Page.IsValid property. The property returns true if there are no validation errors else
returns false.
e.g
if page.IsValid then
'do some action
else
'display some message
end if
