RequiredFieldValidator with ValidationSummary not working with enter key inside empty textbox

Question

Consider the following ASPX:

<asp:ValidationSummary ID="vSummary" runat="server" CssClass="error-message" HeaderText="<p>Please correct the following errors with your profile.</p>" ShowMessageBox="false" DisplayMode="BulletList" ShowSummary="true" />

<asp:TextBox ID="txtTest" runat="server" ClientIDMode="Static"></asp:TextBox>
<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="rfv" runat="server" Display="None" ErrorMessage="Enter a value in the textbox." ControlToValidate="txtTest"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

<asp:Button ID="btn1" runat="server" Text="Button 1" OnClick="btn1Click" ClientIDMode="Static" />

With text entered into the textbox, everything behaves as expected.

Clicking the button submits the form / pressing 'Enter' while inside the textbox submits the form.

However, when the textbox is empty, pressing 'enter' does nothing. Clicking the button will display the validation summary, as expected, but pressing 'enter' does not.

How can I make the validation summary display after the 'Enter' key is pressed inside an empty textbox?

have you try to call page validation by javascript? – Joan Caron Mar 12 '13 at 21:26 — Joan Caron, Mar 12 '13 at 21:26
return Page_ClientValidate("optionalValidationGroup"); – Joan Caron Mar 12 '13 at 21:27 — Joan Caron, Mar 12 '13 at 21:27

Eugene Pavlov · Answer 1 · 2013-03-12T21:42:45.670

For some reason when you hit enter error does not being displayed by ValidationSummary control. However, if you change in RequiredFieldValidator Display to "Dynamic" you will see error message.

Update: to overcome this problem try to follow instructions from this article.

For lazy ones:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
     if (!Page.IsPostBack)
     {
          // Add new attribute to form1 event to fire when enter key submit button click event

          form1.Attributes.Add("onkeydown", "javascript: return WebForm_FireDefaultButton (event, '" + ButtonName.ClientID + "')");

          // Allow you to use enter key for sumbit data
          ClientScript.RegisterHiddenField("__EVENTTARGET", "ButtonName");
     }
}

And finally:

// Add this code to div section on the form1 ASPX page.

<div id="inputArea" onkeypress="javascript:return WebForm_FireDefaultButton(event,'ButtonName')">

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 12 '13 at 21:44

That behaviour is because your textbox is being validated but the validation message is not showing because you turned it off with Display = "none". It's doing the validation on client side and therefore, postback did not occur because of empty text.

If you remove the Validation control (which is not what you want) from the page, your text box will start posting back. I guess you don't want the message to show for each control, just in the validation summary, otherwise, that's the easiest way

RequiredFieldValidator with ValidationSummary not working with enter key inside empty textbox

2 Answers2