Unobtrusive Validation for Inline Datepicker not working, works fine for non-inline Datepicker

Question

I didn't use jquery.ui's datepicker because I needed to select an entire week and multiple dates under different conditions, so I am using Keith Wood's datepicker in an EditorTemplate for my Date fields:

    @model Nullable<DateTime>
    @{
        string name = ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix;
        string id = name.Replace(".", "_");
        string dt = Model.HasValue ? String.Format("{0:d}",(string)Model.Value.ToShortDateString()) : string.Empty;
    }        
    @Html.TextBox("", dt, new { @class = "datefield", @type = "date", @id = id })
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(document).ready(function () {
            $('#@id').datepick({
                renderer: $.datepick.themeRollerRenderer,
                multiSelect: 999
            });
        });    
    </script>

Validation works just fine when using a textbox and having the datepicker "pop-up"; but what I really want is to use an inline datepicker, but I can't get validation to work under these conditions:

    @model Nullable<DateTime>
    @{
        string name = ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix;
        string id = name.Replace(".", "_");
        string dt = Model.HasValue ? String.Format("{0:d}",(string)Model.Value.ToShortDateString()) : string.Empty;
    }

    <div class="kwdp">
    </div>
    @Html.Hidden("", dt, new { @class = "datefield", @id = id })
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(document).ready(function () {
            $('.kwdp').datepick({
                renderer: $.datepick.themeRollerRenderer,
                multiSelect: 999
            });
        });    
    </script>

Here is a snip-it of my custom client-side validation:

    form.validate({ 
        rules:{
            StartDate: { 
                required: true, 
                dpDate: true 
            }
        },
        messages: {
            StartDate: 'Please enter a valid date (dd-mm-yyyy)'
        }
    });

And here is the definition of the DateTime field in my Data Class:

    [Required]
    [DataType(DataType.Date)]
    [DisplayFormat(ApplyFormatInEditMode = true, DataFormatString = "{0:dd-MM-yyyy}")]
    public Nullable<DateTime> StartDate { get; set; }

I understand that I should add an onSelect for the datepicker to populate the hidden field with date(s), but regardless, I should get an error when the hidden field value is empty, but its not validating. The html markup is rendered as the following:

    <input name="StartDate" class="datefield" id="StartDate" type="hidden" data-val-required="The StartDate field is required." data-val="true" data-val-date="The field StartDate must be a date." value=""/>

I am using the following libraries:

    <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.unobtrusive-ajax.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>    
    <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/datepick/jquery.datepick.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/datepick/jquery.datepick.ext.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/datepick/jquery.datepick.validation.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.ui.datepicker.validation.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>

I found a similar un-answered question that looks the developer is having the same problem, but no posted solution. Any ideas to where I am going wrong?

Answer 1

Jason is right. By default, jquery validation skips / ignores non-visible input elements. This goes for input type="hidden" elements, or even text boxes that have / inherit display:none; CSS. There is a setting called ignore, and its default value looks like this:

ignore: ':hidden'

You can override this setting on your page with the following script:

$.validator.setDefaults({
    ignore: ''
});

This tells jquery validate not to ignore validation for non-visible elements. If you use this script, jquery validation should automatically, validate the field unobtrusively without you having to manually validate each time the datepicker field value us changed.

Answer 2

In MVC3 hidden form fields are not validated by the clientside validation script, from what I understand. Why not just make the text field hidden, if thats all you want to do?

@Html.TextBox("", dt, new { @class = "datefield", @type = "date", @id = id, style="display:none;" })

or if you want to keep it as a @Html.Hidden field you will have to manually call the validate plugin on the form each time the datepicker is changed.

 $("form").validate().form();