How to add 'depends:' rule to many fields in jQuery validation plugin?

Question

I have used this rule to validate the user billing address if he wants a bill (the input #billyes is checked), this is my current code:

                //BILLING VALIDATION
                legal_id: {
                    required: {
                        depends: function(element) {
                          return $('#billyes').is(":checked");
                        }
                    }
                 },
                 billing_name: {
                    required: {
                        depends: function(element) {
                          return $('#billyes').is(":checked");
                        }
                    }
                 },
                 billing_adress: {
                    required: {
                        depends: function(element) {
                          return $('#billyes').is(":checked");
                        }
                    }
                 },

                 .... ETC

It is repeated too the line return $('#billyes').is(":checked");

I want to do something like this:

                //BILLING VALIDATION
                legal_id,billing_name,billing_adress,etc: {
                    required: {
                        depends: function(element) {
                          return $('#billyes').is(":checked");
                        }
                    }
                 }

Is this possible? Is there any alternative?

Thanks you.

Answer 1

legal_id,billing_name,billing_adress,etc: {

Within the .validate() method, you cannot do anything like that at all. The object literal within the rules option must be key:value pairs where the key can only be a single field name.

However, there is a way to apply the same rule to multiple fields at once:

You can combine the .rules() method with a jQuery .each(). But you'll need a clever jQuery selector to target them all at once. Like a "starts with" selector or a class. You can't use "starts with billing_" since you also have legal_id, so you'll need to assign a class to these fields or do something else.

$('.yourFields').each(function() {
    $(this).rules('add', {
        required: {
            depends: function(element) {
                return $('#billyes').is(":checked");
            }
        }
    });
});

Otherwise, no, within the .validate() method, there is no shortcut.