Jquery textbox validation with textbox value

Question

I have a couple textbox's in a form that have values in them. I am using onfocus and onblur to clear the value when the user clicks on the textbox. I am also trying to validate the textbox's but since there is already a value in the box the validation doesn't work. Is there a way I can get the validation to ignore the value (ie. First Name)?

Thanks!

<script type="text/javascript">

 var j = jQuery.noConflict();

    j(document).ready(function() {


        j("#ContactUs_Solutions_EN2012").validate({

        rules: {
 realname: "required",
 email: {
   required: true,
   email: true
 }
 },
messages: {
 realname: "<p style='color:red; font-size:12px; margin:-10px 0 0px 0; padding:10px 0px 10px 10px ; text-align:right;'>Please specify your name</p>",
 email: {
   required: "<p style='color:red; font-size:10px; margin:-10px 0 0px 0; padding:0; text-align:right;'>We need your email address to contact you</p>",
   email: "Your email address must be in the format of name@domain.com"
  }
}
        });
    });
</script>

<input style="WIDTH: 275px" id="First_Name" name="realname" class="required" size="25" minlength="2" value="First Name" >

Answer 1

Since you put up a value on your textbox, your validation will not work. Change the value into placeholder. You don't need to put onfocus and onblur to clear the value because placeholder will do it for you.

<input style="WIDTH: 275px" id="First_Name" name="realname" class="required" size="25" minlength="2" placeholder="First Name" >