Calling jquery validation valid on form element

Question

I have a form where I am calling the valid() function on each form element separately. I have an field named "altemailaddress" that I set a rule to be "email" and required is false. However the valid() function returns false if there is no value in the input text box.

jQuery("#aspnet-form").validate({
    onsubmit: false,
    rules: {
        prefix: "required",
        emailaddress: {
            required: true,
            email: true
        },
        altemailaddress: {
            required: false,
            email: true
        }

    },
    messages: {
        prefix: "Please enter a prefix",
        emailaddress: {
            required: "Please enter an email address",
            email: "Invalid email format"
        }

    }
});

var $group = jQuery(this).parents(".validationGroup");
    var isValid = true;


    $group.find(":input").each(function (i, item) {
        if (!jQuery(item).valid())
        {

            isValid = false;
        }           

    });

As I loop through each item, I call the valid() function. If the rule for altemailaddress says require: false, it ignores it and returns false if no value is provided.

If I just set up the validate plugin to validate on submit it works fine.

Answer 1

I think valid() is only for an enitre form

Try using $.validate().element(item)

if (!$("#aspnet-form").validate().element( item ))
{
  isValid = false;
}  

http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Validation/Validator/element#element