jQuery validation dependant required and notEqual

Question

Using the jQuery validation plugin I have figured out how to make a field required based on the input of another field and also how to make a field not equal to a default value – however I’m struggling to combine the two e.g. only require a field not to equal a default value when it is re quired. Here’s my code:

$(document).ready(function () {
$.validator.addMethod("notEqual", function(value, element, param) {
  return this.optional(element) || value !== param;
}, "Please specify a non-default value");

$("#request").validate({
  rules: {
        format: {
            required    : true,
        },
        citySuburb      :   {
            required    : function(element) {
                    return $("#format").val()=="print"
                    },
            notEqual    : "Please enter your city."
            },
      }
    });
});

As you can see in the example above the citySuburb field always checks to see whether it’s equal to the default value regardless of whether the field itself is required. I would really like this to make this work so that citySuburb only checks to see if it is a default value when the field is required (i.e. when ‘print’ is selected in the format field).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Change your notEqual method so that it accepts named parameters, e.g.

notEqual: { default: "Please enter your city.",
            otherField: "#format",
            otherFieldValue: "print"
          }

then have the notEqual method check $(param.otherField).val() == param.otherFieldValue.