How To Show Setcustomvalidity Message Tooltip Without Submit Event

When it comes to web development, adding custom validation messages to form elements can greatly improve user experience. Typically, these messages are displayed when a user submits a form with invalid input. However, there are times when you might want to show these messages without waiting for a submit event. In this article, we'll walk through how to achieve this using the setCustomValidity method in HTML and JavaScript.

First things first, it's important to understand the setCustomValidity method. This method is used to set a custom error message on an input element. By default, this message is only shown when the form is submitted. To display this message without waiting for submission, we can utilize JavaScript to trigger the validation manually.

Here's a simple example to demonstrate how to show a custom validation message as a tooltip without the need for a submit event:

<label for="email">Email:</label>

In the above code snippet, we have a basic form with an email input field that is required. Let's add some JavaScript to display a custom validation message when the user interacts with the input field:

const emailInput = document.getElementById('email');

emailInput.addEventListener('input', function() {
    if (emailInput.validity.typeMismatch) {
        emailInput.setCustomValidity('Please enter a valid email address');
    } else {
        emailInput.setCustomValidity('');
    }
});

In this JavaScript code, we're listening for the 'input' event on the email input field. When the event is triggered (i.e., when the user interacts with the input field), we check if the input value is a valid email address using the validity.typeMismatch property. If it's not a valid email, we set a custom validation message using setCustomValidity. If the input is valid, we clear the custom message to ensure the default browser validation behavior.

By attaching this event listener to the input field, we can provide real-time feedback to the user as they fill out the form. This approach allows us to show custom validation messages as tooltips without requiring the user to submit the form.

It's worth noting that you can customize the validation messages based on your specific requirements. You can check for different types of errors (like pattern mismatch, range overflow, etc.) and provide meaningful messages to guide the user towards correct input.

In conclusion, using the setCustomValidity method along with JavaScript event listeners allows you to show custom validation messages as tooltips without relying on the form submission event. This enhances the user experience by providing instant feedback and guiding users towards entering valid data. Remember to test your implementation across different browsers to ensure consistent behavior. Happy coding!