Conditional validation for drop down list

Question

Hi all,
I have been working on getting the conditional validation for drop down list to work but no luck. Here is my situation. I have a page with 'time' and 'source' drop down which contains a list of values along with null value. I have two buttons 'save' and 'close'. when a User clicks on 'Save' button, no checking should occur and the values filled in the form should be stored into the database. When a user clicks on 'Close' button, validation should occur and messages should be displayed saying 'values should be filled' . After the user fills each drop down list and hits close button, changes should be saved to the database. I used the technique posted by Jayashri and wrote the validation code in 'Close button action method'
Here is my code
public String btnClose_action() {
// TODO: Replace with your code
try {
if (ddlTime.getSelected() == null || ddlTime.getSelected().equals("")) {
FacesMessage message3 = new FacesMessage("Please select a value");
message3.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR);
getFacesContext().addMessage(ddlTime.getClientId(getFacesContext()), message3);
return null;
if (ddlSourceReq.getSelected() == null || ddlSourceReq.getSelected().equals("")) {
FacesMessage message4 = new FacesMessage("Please select a value");
message4.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR);
getFacesContext().addMessage(ddlSourceReq.getClientId(getFacesContext()), message4);
return null;
sendMail("close");
} catch (Exception ex) {
return null;
public String btnSave_action() {
// TODO: Process the button click action. Return value is a navigation
// case name where null will return to the same page.
sendMail("save");
return null;
I did not set the 'required' property of both the drop downs and I dont have any message components in the page. How do I get this to work. Please help.
Thanks,
S

Answer 1

Hi,
Try this
HTP.p('
function validate_form_fields()
var validation = true;
if (document.forms[0].fld_1.options[document.forms[0].fld_1.selectedIndex] == null )
validation = false;
alert("Selection of FLD1 is mandatory.");
if (document.forms[0].fld_2.options[document.forms[0].fld_2.selectedIndex] == null )
validation = false;
alert("Selection of FLD 2 is mandatory.");
return validation;
');If the above does not work, it could be the definition of the your fld_1 select - options. Looks like they allow null values, and if null is not the first option then selectIndex = 0 will be a not null option by default.
Moreover, the below has redundant condition as ==0 and < 1 amount to the same thing. selectIndex cannot be negative.
if ((document.forms[0].fld_1.selectedIndex == 0 ) || (document.forms[0].fld_1.selectedIndex < 1 ))Regards,