jquery.validate plugin - how to trim values before form validation

Question

I\'m using the excellent jquery.validation plugin by Jörn Zaefferer and I was wondering whether there\'s a easy way to automatically trim form elements before they are valid

Answer 1

For reference, until I find a more elegant solution, I'm using addMethod as follows:

// Extend email validation method so that it ignores whitespace
jQuery.validator.addMethod("emailButAllowTrailingWhitespace", function(value, element) {
    return (this.optional(element) || jQuery.validator.methods.email.call(this, jQuery.trim(value), element));
}, "Please enter a valid email");

$().ready(function() {
    $("#commentForm").validate({
        rules: {
            cemail: {
                required: true,
                emailButAllowTrailingWhitespace: true
            }
        }
    });
});

Note: this doesn't actually strip the whitespace from the field, it only ignores it. So you need to ensure you perform trim on the server-side before inserting in the DB.