LeadSpend jQuery Validate Plugin

The LeadSpend jQuery Validate plugin allows for LeadSpend's email validation to be applied to an online form by creating a custom rule for the existing jQuery Validate plugin.

Contents

The included files are as follows:

• jquery.validate.leadspend.js
• demo/index.html
• demo/js/leadspend.jsonp.js
• demo/js/leadspend.custom.tutorial.js

jquery.validate.leadspend.js

The LeadSpend jQuery Validate plugin. Calling this file is all that is necessary to add LeadSpend validation as a jQuery Validate rule.

demo/index.html

Contains a demo form as an example of how to integrate the LeadSpend jQuery Validate plugin into a form.

demo/js/leadspend.jsonp.js

This is the file required to make a call to LeadSpend's validation API.

demo/js/leadspend.custom.tutorial.js

This file contains an example of various customizations for jQuery Validate integration.

Getting Started

Before getting started with LeadSpend email validation, you will need to be set up with an account. Calls to LeadSpend's API used for this plugin are authenticated using domain-based authenticaiton, so you will need to contact info@leadspend.com and request for your development environment to be approved.

Basic integration is very easy. Simply include the required files, add the css class "LeadSpendEmail" to the email field you wish to be validated, and call jQuery Validate on your form. An example of this is provided in the demo folder, along with a few recommended customizations. For more information about the jQuery Validate plugin, please see http://bassistance.de/jquery-plugins/jquery-plugin-validation/.

Customizing the Plugin

There are a number of customizations, configured through the normal jQuery Validate settings, which may improve your experience using LeadSpend on your site. In the following examples, the string "ID_OF_FORM" refers to the ID attribute of the form being validated and EMAIL_FIELD_NAME refers to the name attribute of the email address field.

Custom Error Messages

By default, jQuery Validate places an error message next to each field which has been filled out incorrectly. The LeadSpend plugin is no exception, and provides default messages for each invalid state. These states are as follows:

• Deny Email Eddress: An email address has been classified by LeadSpend as invalid. This can mean the address is undeliverable, unreachable, illegitimate, or disposable and LeadSpend recommends not accepting these addresses.

• Email Validity Pending: An email address has been sent to the LeadSpend API to be classified, but the result has not been returned yet. Don't worry, we'll have a response, but sometimes these things take time (our default timeout is 5 seconds).

These messages may be customized using either a string or a function, by assigning custom rules to the LeadSpendEmail class of your email field. If a function is used, the function must accept one parameter and return a string. The example below is used in demo/js/leadspend.custom.tutorial.js.

$("#ID_OF_FORM").validate({
	rules:{
		EMAIL_FIELD_NAME:{
			"LeadSpendEmail":{
				//example of string message
				validityPendingMessage: "Pending...",
				
				//example of function
				denyAddressMessage: function(validity){
					if (typeof validity != "undefined"){
						return "This email address is "+validity.result+". Please use another.";
					}
					return "Invalid address.";
				}
			}
		}
	}
});

When a function is used to determine the messae, it is passed a validity object which contains the following variables:

{
	address: "email.address@provider.com"	//email address you verified
	elapsed_milliseconds: 3695		//elapsed time
	request_timestamp: "2012-08-13T20:31:28.209Z"	//when request was made
	result: "verified"	//LeadSpend result for email validity
 }

Custom onkeyup Validation Handling

By default, jQuery validate is set to re-validate a field each time a keystroke is detected in that field. Using this methodology for LeadSpend validation doesn't make sense, because it will create unnecessary calls to the API before the email address has been completely typed. To prevent this from happening, we must customize the default onkeyup action like so:

$("#ID_OF_FORM").validate({
	onkeyup: function(element) {
		//prevent onkeyup validiation for specific fields
		if ($(element).attr('name') != $(".LeadSpendEmail").attr("name")) {
			$.validator.defaults.onkeyup.apply(this,arguments);
		}
	}
});

Optional Form Submission Handling

While the LeadSpend result is pending, the email address field is considered invalid even though the address may actually be a good one. If a user tries to submit the form before the LeadSpend API call completes, the form will not be sent. Even though everything is working fine behind the scenes, and the user is told that the email address is "Validating..." they may still believe that the form is broken.

In order to prevent this, LeadSpend provides a method for automatically re-submitting the form once the valid result is returned. This will only occur if every field in the form is still valid. To utilize this, simply add a function call to the default invalidHandler like so:

$("#ID_OF_FORM").validate({
	invalidHandler: function(form, validator) {
		LeadSpend.invalidHandler(form, validator);
	 }
});

Check Out Our Demo Form

For a full exmaple of how to integrate LeadSpend into a form, take a look at the demo form included here. The demo form shows how to easily integrate LeadSpend validation into your website, as well as applying the three customizations detailed above.