asp:CustomValidator / OnServerValidate

Question

I have a CheckBoxList that I am trying to validate that at least one of the checkboxes is checked.

Markup:

<asp:CustomValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator8" ValidationGroup="EditArticle"
    runat="server" ErrorMessage="At least one Category is required."
    OnServerValidate="topic_ServerValidate" />
<asp:CheckBoxList id="checkboxlistCategories" runat="server"></asp:CheckBoxList>

Code-behind:

protected void topic_ServerValidate(object source, ServerValidateEventArgs args)
{
    int i = 0;
    foreach (ListItem item in checkboxlistCategories.Items)
    {
        if (item.Selected == true)
            i = i + 1;
    }
    if (i == 0)
        args.IsValid = false;
    else
        args.IsValid = true;
}

If I add ControlToValidate="checkboxlistCategories" in the CustomValidator control, it blows up! The exception I get is:

System.Web.HttpException: Control 'checkboxlistCategories' referenced by the ControlToValidate property of 'RequiredFieldValidator8'

Am I missing something?

Answer 1

Here's a cleaner jQuery implementation that allows one ClientValidationFunction for any number of CheckBoxList controls on a page:

function ValidateCheckBoxList(sender, args) {
 args.IsValid = false;

 $("#" + sender.id).parent().find("table[id$="+sender.ControlId+"]").find(":checkbox").each(function () {
     if ($(this).attr("checked")) {
  args.IsValid = true;
  return;
     }
 });
}

Here's the markup:

<asp:CheckBoxList runat="server"
    Id="cblOptions" 
    DataTextField="Text" 
    DataValueField="Id" />

<xx:CustomValidator Display="Dynamic" 
        runat="server" 
        ID="cblOptionsValidator"
        ControlId="cblOptions"
        ClientValidationFunction="ValidateCheckBoxList" 
        ErrorMessage="One selection required." />

And finally, the custom validator that allows the client function to retrieve the target control by ID:

public class CustomValidator : System.Web.UI.WebControls.CustomValidator
{
 public string ControlId { get; set; }

 protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
 {
     if (Enabled)
         Page.ClientScript.RegisterExpandoAttribute(ClientID, "ControlId", ControlId);

     base.OnLoad(e);
 }
}