Updating form validation

[ifis]

I found a script to validate a form by getElementsByTagName .  I have the validation set up to validate <input>s , but I want to add <textarea>s .  I'm not too up on javascript and have tried to do some playing around without any sucess.  Here is the code:

function validate() { 
var str = ""; 
var elements = document.getElementsByTagName('input'); 

// loop through all input elements in form 
for(var i = 0; i < elements.length; i++) { 

   // check if element is mandatory; ie has a pattern  
   var pattern = elements.item(i).getAttribute('pattern'); 
   if (pattern != null) { 
     var value = elements.item(i).value; 

     // validate the value of this element, using its defined pattern 
     var offendingChar = value.match(pattern); 

     // if an invalid character is found or the element was left emtpy 
     if(offendingChar != null || value.length == 0) { 

       // add up all error messages 
       str += elements.item(i).getAttribute('errorMsg') + "\n" ; 

       // notify user by changing background color, in this case to red 
       elements.item(i).style.background = "yellow";  
     } 
   } 
}  

if (str != "") { 
   // do not submit the form 
   alert("ERROR ALERT!!\n" +str);  
   return false; 
} else { 
   // form values are valid; submit 
   return true; 
} 
}

the scipt picks out pattern and errorMsg from the HTML code:

<input pattern='[^A-Za-z]' errorMsg='You are missing Answer 1 for question $q' name='aanswer$q' type='text' id='aanswer$q' size='95' />

Thanks for the help!

[web_loone_08]

try this.....

 

function validate() { 
var str = ""; 
var elements = document.getElementsByTagName('input'); 
var elements2 = document.getElementsByTagName('textarea'); 

// loop through all input elements in form 
for(var i = 0; i < elements.length; i++) { 

   // check if element is mandatory; ie has a pattern  
   var pattern = elements.item(i).getAttribute('pattern'); 
   if (pattern != null) { 
     var value = elements.item(i).value; 

     // validate the value of this element, using its defined pattern 
     var offendingChar = value.match(pattern); 

     // if an invalid character is found or the element was left emtpy 
     if(offendingChar != null || value.length == 0) { 

       // add up all error messages 
       str += elements.item(i).getAttribute('errorMsg') + "\n" ; 

       // notify user by changing background color, in this case to red 
       elements.item(i).style.background = "yellow";  
     } 
   } 

// loop through all textarea elements in form 
for(var ii = 0; ii < elements2.length; ii++) { 

   // check if element is mandatory; ie has a pattern  
   var pattern2 = elements2.item(i).getAttribute('pattern'); 
   if (pattern2 != null) { 
     var value2 = elements2.item(i).value; 

     // validate the value of this element, using its defined pattern 
     var offendingChar2 = value2.match(pattern2); 

     // if an invalid character is found or the element was left emtpy 
     if(offendingChar2 != null || value2.length == 0) { 

       // add up all error messages 
       str += elements2.item(i).getAttribute('errorMsg') + "\n" ; 

       // notify user by changing background color, in this case to red 
       elements2.item(i).style.background = "yellow";  
     } 
   } 

}