jQuery Forum

I think that I've came accross a bug in the jQuery Validate Plugin about the groups setting.

Here is the initialisation example found on jquery.com :

1. $("#myForm").validate({
2.         groups:{
3.                 groupname1: "inputname1 inputname2",
4.                 groupname2: "inputname3 inputname4"
   
5.         }
6. });

Based on this example I came up with a fonction that filled the setting groups dynamically. My groups of input are wrapped in divs with class="group".

1. $("#myForm").validate({
2.         groups: getGroups();
3. });
4. 
   
5. function getGroups(){
6.         var result = {};
7.         $('#myForm .group').each(function(i) {
8.                 var names = "";
9.                 $(this).find('input').each(function(){
10.                         names += $(this).attr('name') + " ";
11.                 });
12.                 result['groupname' + i] = names;
13.         });
14.         return result;
15. }

There is no problem with that in the first place.

Now lets say you dynamically add some inputs to the form using jquery and you want to add them to a group in the validator..
If the validator has already been initialised you won't be able to add another group using the same method.

I've tried all of this:

1. $("#myForm").validate({
2.         groups: getGroups();
3. });

=> Do nothing

1. $("#myForm").validate().setting.groups = getGroups();

=> Do nothing

1. $("#myForm").validate().groups = getGroups();

=> Break the first groups created during the initialization !!

So we can break groups!! That's a good start...
So I checked the structure of '$("#myForm").validate().groups' and noticed that it has not the same as when I initialized it.
After initialization the structure looks like this:

1. groups:{
2.         inputname1:"groupname1",
3.         inputname2:"groupname1",
4.         inputname3:"groupname2",
5.         inputname4:"groupname2",
6. }

So I ended up with this solution:

1. // Initialization
   
2. $("#myForm").validate();
3. $("#myForm").validate().groups = getGroups();

1. // getGroups Function
   
2. function getGroups(){
3.         var result = {};
4.         $('#myForm .group').each(function(i) {
5.                 $(this).find('input').each(function(){
6.                         result[$(this).attr('name')] = 'groupname' + i;
7.                 });
8.         });
9.         return result;
10. }

Is it supposed to be the normal behavior ? Am I doing something wrong ?