Ajax: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 15. Data Validation: Client, Server, or Both

In Chapter 14, you saw how to add Ajax to an XHTML form to asynchronously send user data between the client and the server. Somewhere in the application, that data should be checked—or validated—to determine whether it is the type of data that the program expected. This chapter will look at ways that validation can happen within an Ajax application, and where the validation should take place. Then we can see what benefits Ajax can bring to form validation to make your web application more robust.

Data Validation Is Important

Any developer who doubts the importance of data validation should think again. In fact, I would call such a developer crazy. The old paradigm “garbage in, garbage out” is extremely dangerous in any environment where the developer cannot control the users of an application. Crashes, hacks, and undesirable results can occur when the user is left to his own devices regarding the information he sends to the server or any other part of the client application. We’ll discuss several scenarios that demonstrate the danger of collecting data from a user without checking what that user entered before letting the program have at it.

First, imagine you have built a form that collects emergency contact information from a user and stores it in a database. In several places in this scenario, it would be important to have some validation around the form:

• Is there a valid-looking phone number?

• Was a name entered?

• Was a relationship ...