jquery - How can I customize the unobtrusive validation in ASP.NET MVC 3 to match my style?

Question

The default validation in MVC 3 is based on jQuery Validation, which I can usually customize with something like:

$.validator.setDefaults({
  submitHandler: function() { alert('submitHandler'); },
  errorPlacement: function(error, element) {
    // do something important here
    alert('errorPlacement');
  },
  errorClass: "error",
  errorElement: "input",
  onkeyup: false,
  onclick: false
})

But, that doesn't seem to work in MVC 3. Specifically, errorPlacement doesn't ever seem to be called and I've no idea why. I'll get the submitHandler called, but never errorPlacement.

How can I customize the validation to match whatever structure/style that I require for my site's style? The default is great, but it doesn't always work in every situation.

Answer 1

In my code instead of using $.validator.setDefaults I access the form validator using $("#form_selector").data('validator') and then change the settings.

$(function () {

    var validator = $("#form_selector").data('validator');
    validator.settings.errorPlacement = function(error,element) {
        alert('errorPlacement');
    };

});

See if it works for you.