Using the Form Designer › How to Use JavaScript Functions in Fields › How to Validate User Input

How to Validate User Input

You can configure Form Designer forms to verify that users entered the following types of data in the correct format: credit card numbers, social security numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, postal (zip) codes, and decimal numbers with two fractional digits.

This process does not guarantee that the data entered by the user is authentic but does assist in the validation process by verifying that the user entered the data in the correct format.

You can thus use the Form Designer to verify that the data you want and is recorded in the format that you want. For example, you can verify that phone number fields accept only numeric input, that date fields accept only your company's standard date format, and that credit card fields accept only numbers that are entered in the correct format for the credit card type specified.

Additionally, you can specify maximum length, minimum length, and other attributes used to validate user input.

Choose the task you want to perform:

• Use regular expressions to validate numeric and address data. In this case, you use regular expressions in the HTML attribute named pattern to validate the format of credit card numbers, social security numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, postal codes, dates, and decimal numbers with two fractional digits.
• Use JavaScript functions to validate the format of credit card numbers. For example, you use the pre-defined JavaScript function named ca_fdValidateCC(credit card number, credit card type) in a JavaScript attribute such as onValidate to verify the credit card formats. Alternatively, you can create your own custom JavaScript function.