Learning XPages Part 35 : Advanced Validation Using RegEX
Tags : Lotus Domino XPages Validation RegEX
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The validation for the JobTitle field was fairly simple, we made sure it existed and that it was between 10 and 50 characters in length but what if you want to do some more advanced validation like confirm that a phone number only contains numbers and the + and - characters or that an email address contails the @ and . symbols? To do this we need to create a 'Constraints' validation using RegEx. Regular Expression is a method to identify patterns of characters in a string and can range from simple to very complex. I won't get into the entire RegEx format here but I will provide a few commonly used RegEx Expressions.
Lets open the content_Person custom Control again and select the 'OfficePhoneNumber' edit control. If you are using server side validation then don;t forget to add in a 'Display Error' control and link it to the OfficePhoneNumber edit control and then in the edit control's properties disable the client side validation ( assuming you didn't set the entire app to Server Side Validation in the application properties )
I have also made the edit box control a 'Required Field' by turning on the option in the validation tab or it's properties.
Now go down to the 'All Properties' for the edit box control and look at the Data - Validators section. If you click on it you'll get a small + and - button appearing in the row and clicking on the + button will bring up the list of different validators that you can add to the edit box
We are going to use the xp:validateConstraint validator and selecting it added the validator to the properties with fields for the error message and the regex expression
The RegEx that I am using I got from a great resource called the RegExLibrary, This resource has lots of great RegEx validations that you can use for your applications. Phone Numbers ( Used Above ), Email addresses, US Zip Codes and many many more, just be aware that there are multiple versions of the different expressions and some may or may not do exactly what you need so always make sure you test them out.
Save your Xpage and test editing the persons phone number. Try adding a letter into the phone number and when you save the page you should see your server side validation kick in and receive an error message back.
Now that we know how to validate the data being entered we do need to be able to save it. In the next part we'll create our save button and also hide it when the document is not in edit mode.
Bookmark :
The validation for the JobTitle field was fairly simple, we made sure it existed and that it was between 10 and 50 characters in length but what if you want to do some more advanced validation like confirm that a phone number only contains numbers and the + and - characters or that an email address contails the @ and . symbols? To do this we need to create a 'Constraints' validation using RegEx. Regular Expression is a method to identify patterns of characters in a string and can range from simple to very complex. I won't get into the entire RegEx format here but I will provide a few commonly used RegEx Expressions.
Lets open the content_Person custom Control again and select the 'OfficePhoneNumber' edit control. If you are using server side validation then don;t forget to add in a 'Display Error' control and link it to the OfficePhoneNumber edit control and then in the edit control's properties disable the client side validation ( assuming you didn't set the entire app to Server Side Validation in the application properties )
I have also made the edit box control a 'Required Field' by turning on the option in the validation tab or it's properties.
Now go down to the 'All Properties' for the edit box control and look at the Data - Validators section. If you click on it you'll get a small + and - button appearing in the row and clicking on the + button will bring up the list of different validators that you can add to the edit box
We are going to use the xp:validateConstraint validator and selecting it added the validator to the properties with fields for the error message and the regex expression
The RegEx that I am using I got from a great resource called the RegExLibrary, This resource has lots of great RegEx validations that you can use for your applications. Phone Numbers ( Used Above ), Email addresses, US Zip Codes and many many more, just be aware that there are multiple versions of the different expressions and some may or may not do exactly what you need so always make sure you test them out.
Save your Xpage and test editing the persons phone number. Try adding a letter into the phone number and when you save the page you should see your server side validation kick in and receive an error message back.
Now that we know how to validate the data being entered we do need to be able to save it. In the next part we'll create our save button and also hide it when the document is not in edit mode.
