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Validators can implement the com.opensymphony.xwork.validator.ScriptValidationAware interface to provide The framework adds support for client-side validation :

public interface ScriptValidationAware extends FieldValidator {
    public String validationScript(Map parameters);
}

The value returned by validationScript will be executed on the client-side before the form is submitted if client-side validation is enabled. For example, the requiredstring validator has the following code:

public String validationScript(Map parameters) {
        String field = (String) parameters.get("name");
        StringBuffer js = new StringBuffer();

        js.append("value = form.elements['" + field + "'].value;\n");
        js.append("if (value == \"\") {\n");
        js.append("\talert('" + getMessage(null) + "');\n");
        js.append("\treturn '" + field + "';\n");
        js.append("}\n");
        js.append("\n");

        return js.toString();
}

To enable client-side validation, use the <ww:form> tag:

on top of the standard validation framework.

Client-side validation can be enabled on a per-form basis by specifying validate="true" in the form tag.

<s:form name="test" action="javascriptValidation" validate="true">
  ...
</s:form>

If a name for the form is not given, the action mapping name will be used as the form name. Otherwise, a correct action and namespace attributes must be provided to the <saf:form> tag.

<s:form namespace="/user" action="submitProfile" validate="true">
  ...
</s:form>

Technically, the form's action attribute can refer to a "path" that includes the namespace and action as a URI. But, client-side validation requires that the action name and namespeact to be set separately.

<s:form action="/user/submitProfile.action" validate="true">

<ww:form name="'test'" action="'javascriptValidation'" validate="true" >

  ...
</wws:form>

...

All the usual validation configuration steps apply to client-side validation. Client-side validation uses the same validation rules as server-side validation. If server-side validation doesn't work, then client-side validation won't work either.

Client Side Validation Types

There are two styles of client side validation.