This is my current validation set up for my form

<ng-messages for="searchForm.$error" ng-if="searchForm.$submitted">
  <ng-message when="required" class="error-message">This search field is required.</ng-message>
</ng-messages>

and my form

<form role="form" ng-submit="searchForm.$valid && searchcode()" name="searchForm" novalidate>

It works fine.

But here is what I don't like this scenario

1) Hit Enter on empty searchbox - > it shows the correct message "Field Is Required"

2) Start Typing and Erase Text without hitting enter - > it shows error message again

It's the second scenario I dont want...any ideas ?

This is my current validation set up for my form

<ng-messages for="searchForm.$error" ng-if="searchForm.$submitted">
  <ng-message when="required" class="error-message">This search field is required.</ng-message>
</ng-messages>

and my form

<form role="form" ng-submit="searchForm.$valid && searchcode()" name="searchForm" novalidate>

It works fine.

But here is what I don't like this scenario

1) Hit Enter on empty searchbox - > it shows the correct message "Field Is Required"

2) Start Typing and Erase Text without hitting enter - > it shows error message again

It's the second scenario I dont want...any ideas ?

• javascript
• angularjs
• validation

• 1 why are you using searchForm.searchQuery.$touched? this might be the reason you're getting this behaviour. try using just searchForm.$submitted – Anubhav Commented Dec 5, 2014 at 14:56
• Got rid of it and just had submitted but same behaviour...it seems like after the first submit the form stays in "Submitted" state, and that error message just shows whenever the textbox is empty then rather when submitted again – StevieB Commented Dec 5, 2014 at 15:00
• This post might help you. – Anubhav Commented Dec 5, 2014 at 15:02
• Also a fiddle demo would help. – Anubhav Commented Dec 5, 2014 at 15:03
• I also think, that if you replace the $touched part in the ng-if with $pristine. Make sure you set the form with $setPristine after submitting the form. – tomazahlin Commented Dec 8, 2014 at 9:27

3 Answers 3

Maybe your field name for the error message is not right. Cannot tell the exact reason why yours not work because you did not provide an example. However, when I tested, it works fine.

 <form ng-controller="MyCtrl" role="form" name="searchForm" novalidate
    ng-submit="searchcode()">
    <input type="text" ng-model="field" name="myField" 
      ng-keypress="searchForm.$submitted=false"
      required minlength="5" />
    <ng-messages ng-if="searchForm.$submitted"
      for="searchForm.myField.$error">
      <ng-message when="required" class="error-message">
        This search field is required.
      </ng-message>
    </ng-messages>
  </form>

http://plnkr.co/edit/56koY7YxPDVFe4S26x9N?p=preview

You could write your own custom validator, and then use an if statement to decide what to validate. Since for instance you don't want there to be any validation done when a person is erasing characters, you could write the validator so that it takes an event and then you can get the char code of the key that fired the event, opting not to validate when that char code represents either backspace or delete.

I will do this in different way. Hope it helps. It will show the messages if the form is not valid and dirty. When the user submits, reset the form by setting it to be pristine. With this, you can reset you $scope.field to empty and not showing error messages.

<form ng-controller="MyCtrl" role="form" name="searchForm" novalidate ng-submit="searchcode()">
   <input type="text" ng-model="field" name="myField" required minlength="5" />
   <p class="error-message" ng-show="!searchForm.$valid && searchForm.$dirty">
     This search field is required.
   </p> 
   <ul>
      <li>$submitted : {{searchForm.$submitted}}
      <li>$valid: {{searchForm.$valid}}
      <li>$dirty:  {{searchForm.$dirty}} 
   </ul>
</form>

On submit, reset the form by setting it to be pristine.

$scope.searchcode = function() {
    $scope.searchForm.$setPristine();
    $scope.field="";
    console.log('submitted');
  }

http://plnkr.co/edit/m0cCmOAtY2J8fhSv0DVg?p=preview