Conditional rules on the fields based on jQuery.validator.addMethod

Question

I have two jQuery.validator.addMethod, named "A" and "B".

Is it possible to set conditional rules on the fields based on different methods? For example:

$("#form2").validate( {
    rules: {
        inputVal: {
            //if condition = true, A:true, else run B:true
        }
    }
     ...
});

Answer 1

Is it possible to set conditional rules on the fields based on different methods?

No, you cannot set different rules based on different conditions within the .validate() method. The object literal for each field can only contain a comma separated list of key:value pairs representing the desired methods and parameters.

However, you are allowed to conditionally set the parameter for each method using the depends property, effectively achieving the same thing by toggling the rule on or off...

$("#form2").validate( {
    rules: {
        inputVal: { // <- field name
            method_A: 
                depends: function(element) {
                    // activate/disable method A
                    return (condition) ? true : false;
                }
            },
            method_B: 
                depends: function(element) {
                    // disable/activate method B
                    return (condition) ? false : true;
                }
            }
        }
    },
     ...
});

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/nL2sk069/

---

Otherwise, you could simply write a new method that combines the functionality of methods A & B, and just evaluate your condition there.

var message;

$.validator.addMethod('method_C', function(value, element, param) {
    var result;
    if (condition) {
       // validate value as per A
       result = (value === "A") ? true : false;  // (pass or fail)
       message = "custom message A";
    } else {
       // validate value as per B
       result = (value === "B") ? true : false;  // (pass or fail)
       message = "custom message B";
    }
    return this.optional(element) || result;
}, function() { return message; });

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/3uheeetx/